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Mahoning health board achieves national accreditation
AUSTINTOWN
The Mahoning County District Board of Health has achieved a five-year national accreditation from the Public Health Accreditation Board, county health officials announced Wednesday.
The local public-health agency is one of only 54 health departments nationally and five in Ohio that have received this recognition out of nearly 3,000 health departments nationwide, said Patricia Sweeney, county health commissioner.
“The community now knows that we are a quality health department. It’s demonstrated nationally,” Sweeney said.
“Up until now, we have had no barometer that would measure how well we provide these [public health] services in comparison to our counterparts across the nation,” said Len Perry, a county health-board member since 1984.
“Accredited health departments like ours have held themselves up for public scrutiny by a panel of public-health professionals against uniform national standards of public-health practice,” said Matthew Stefanak, former county health commissioner, who initiated the county’s application process.
The Alexandria, Va.-based, nonprofit accrediting board is funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
“Residents of a community served by a nationally accredited health department can be assured that their health department has demonstrated the capacity to protect and promote the health of that community,” said Dr. Kaye Bender, president and chief executive officer of the accrediting board.
To become accredited, a health department must undergo a rigorous, multifaceted, peer-reviewed assessment, including a site visit by an expert survey team, to ensure that it meets or exceeds specific standards, the accrediting board said.
Mahoning County’s health department began the application process in September 2011, when the national accreditation program was initiated, and the county received the accreditation last month.
One of numerous criteria evaluated by the reviewers is vaccination rates in the local population and the success of the health department in getting patients to return for follow-up immunization visits, Sweeney said.
Accreditation fees are based on the size of the populations served, with the county paying $27,300 for the five-year accreditation from tax dollars and grants.
The county health department has a staff of 63 and a $5.7 million annual budget.