Medina County Health Department Maintains National Accreditation Status through the Public Health Accreditation Board
Maintaining Accreditation through PHAB Ensures the Medina County Health Department’s Capacity to Continue to Evolve, Improve and Advance
Medina, Ohio — [April 4, 2022] — The Medina County Health Department today announced it has successfully completed a review process to maintain national accreditation status through the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB). The nonprofit PHAB works to advance and transform public health practice by championing performance improvement, strong infrastructure, and innovation. In maintaining its accreditation status for another five years, the Medina County Health Department has demonstrated that it meets PHAB’s quality standards and measures and has the capacity to continue to evolve, improve and advance, thereby becoming increasingly effective at improving the health of the residents of Medina County.
PHAB’s accreditation program, which receives support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, sets standards against which the nation’s governmental public health departments can continuously improve the quality of their services and performance.
“We are so pleased to again be recognized by PHAB for achieving national standards that foster effectiveness and promote continuous quality improvement, and to be able to announce during National Public Health Week is an added bonus to recognize the staff of the Medina County Health Department who work hard every day for our residents ” said Krista Wasowski, Health Commissioner. “We hope this announcement, coming as it does in the midst of our rapidly unfolding public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic, will reassure our community, our partner organizations, our funders and our elected officials that the services we provide are as responsive as possible to the needs of our community. By continuing to improve our services and performance, we can be sure we are meeting the public health needs of those we serve as effectively as possible.”
The Medina County Health Department achieved national initial accreditation status through PHAB on November 10, 2020, after undergoing a rigorous, multi-faceted, peer-reviewed assessment process to ensure it met a set of quality standards and measures. Today’s announcement goes a step further by demonstrating that the Medina County Health Department has the capacity to become increasingly effective at improving the health of the Medina County.
“We are extremely pleased to be at the point in the accreditation program where the Medina County Health Department, along with many others, are successfully maintaining their five-year accreditation status through PHAB,” said PHAB President and CEO Paul Kuehnert, DNP, RN, FAAN. “In so doing, these health departments are assuring their communities that the value of accreditation is long-term — not a one-time recognition — and that continual improvement is the hallmark of a 21st century organization.”
Often called the “backbone” of the public health system, public health departments are on the front lines of communities’ efforts to protect and promote health and prevent disease and injury. PHAB-accredited health departments demonstrate great leadership by placing their work for peer review, with the goal of using the feedback obtained during the process to improve the services they provide to their communities.
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About Medina County Health Department
The public health mission is to prevent, promote, and protect health. You can trust the Health Department to keep you informed and provide reliable information. The Medina County Health Department has protected your health since 1918. Your property tax health levy partially supports services. Equal opportunity provider. For more information, visit us online at www.medinahealth.org or call 330-723-9688.
About the Public Health Accreditation Board
The Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) was created to serve as the national public health accrediting body and is jointly funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The development of national public health department accreditation has involved, and is supported by, public health leaders and practitioners from the national, state, local, Tribal, and territorial levels. For more information, contact PHAB Communications Manager Janalle Goosby at jgoosby@phaboard.org. Learn more about PHAB and accreditation at www.phaboard.org, and by signing up for the PHAB e-newsletter
