Preparedness in Version 2022

Impact of Accreditation on the COVID-19 Response and Lessons Learned

PHAB conducted a survey of accredited health departments and departments pursuing accreditation in May and June 2020 on how efforts to prepare for and/or maintain accreditation helped the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • 81% of health departments indicated that overall, accreditation helped their response to the pandemic.

When asked how the work to prepared for and/or maintain accreditation helped with the COVID-19 pandemic response:

  • 77% of departments said developing or revising emergency response plans was helpful.
  • 75% of departments said developing/strengthening partnerships with other sectors was helpful.
  • 66% of departments said developing/ strengthening partnership with other health departments was helpful.

Using the lessons learned from the COVID-19 response updates to the preparedness requirements in Version 2022 better align the requirements for the Emergency Operations Plan with Emergency Support Function 8, include more active emergency response preparation and improvements to process, and better align with other national preparedness standards.

Alignment and Reciprocity

Version 2022 of PHAB’s Standards & Measures includes revised preparedness requirements to align with Project Public Health Ready (PPH) and CDC’s Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) cooperative agreement. The previous version of the PHAB accreditation standards have been cross-walked with CDC’s Public Health Preparedness Capabilities (see below) and there is significant, valuable overlap. This alignment is even more pronounced in Version 2022. This allowed for reciprocity between accredited health departments and health departments pursuing accreditation with PPHR and the CDC’s PHEP Operational Readiness Review.

Health Departments currently PPHR Recognized under Criteria V10.0, are exempt from:
  • Section 2 of the PHEP ORR and

  • PHAB Standard 2.2 in accreditation, reaccreditation and Pathways Recognition

Health Departments currently (re)accredited under Version 2022, are exempt from:

  • Capability 13 of the PHEP ORR and

  • Goal 1 Criteria M of PPHR

Health Departments currently (re)accredited under Version 2022 and PPHR Recognized under Criteria V10.0, are exempt from:

  • Section 2 of the PHEP ORR and

  • Capability 13 of the PHEP ORR

Preparedness in Version 1.5

The CDC’s Center for Preparedness and Response and Center for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support developed a crosswalk that highlights the links between CDC’s public health preparedness and PHAB accreditation. 

The document illustrates alignment between:

  • PHAB’s Standards and Measures Version 1.5 for voluntary accreditation of state, tribal, local, and territorial public health departments; and
  • CDC’s 2018 Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Capabilities: National Standards for State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Public Health

The crosswalk can help health department preparedness and accreditation staff demonstrate specific examples of preparedness activities that help fulfill accreditation objectives and strengthen crosscutting health department performance improvement efforts.

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