The Oklahoma City-County Health Department (OCCHD) is a trailblazer during these initial years of public health accreditation. Among the first health departments to be accredited by the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB), OCCHD continues to innovate and share, providing a living example of continuous quality improvement. 

To ensure that accreditation and its principles are integrated into everyday operations, OCCHD has implemented a continuous maintenance process, formalized through agency policies and procedures. Director of Planning and Development Alicia Plati repurposed a spreadsheet the agency originally used to help prepare for accreditation. The tool uses a calendar that aligns each of the 12 PHAB domains with the 12 months of the year and the year that domain should be reviewed (e.g. January, being the first month, is for review of domain one in each odd numbered year). With elegant simplicity, the tool enables OCCHD teams to review and update documentation for all 12 PHAB domains every 24 months.

While many health departments are using spreadsheets to manage preparations for accreditation, the genius of this tool for maintaining accreditation is its straightforward application of quality improvement principles:

• It is easy to learn and remember. Everyone at OCCHD knows that August is for review of Domain 8 in all even numbered years.
• It is efficient. By repurposing a tool that was originally used to achieve a different goal, the department saves itself a lot of additional learning and missteps.
• It is part of business-as-usual, ensuring that no documentation is more than 24-months old. 

Use the green buttons on this page to download a brief summary of this approach, as well as an example of the tool itself. 

For more information about OCCHD's accreditation maintenance strategy, contact Alicia Plati Meadows, OCCHD Director of Planning and Development, at alicia_meadows@occhd.org.

Want more?  Explore PHF's accreditation support products and services.