NACCHO Performance Improvement Technical Assistance Webinar Series December 2011 Moderated by: Mary Kate Allee

2 Please mute your lines The phone lines are open so that attendees can ask questions, but please mute your lines during the presentation portions of the call If your phone doesn’t have a mute function, press STAR (*) 6 to mute through the ReadyTalk system. If you have a question and would like to unmute, please press STAR (*) 7

3 Open Q & A You may pose a question by asking it during the Q & A portion of the webinar today or by using the chat function in ReadyTalk, located in the lower left- hand corner of your screen.

4 Today’s Topic: Accreditation Preparation Tips Today’s presenter: Miriam Sznycer-Taub Senior Program Analyst Accreditation Preparation and Quality Improvement (202)

5 Accreditation Preparation Tips: Topics to Cover 1)Forming an Accreditation Team and Appointing an Accreditation Coordinator 2)Engaging Staff 3)Collecting and Organizing Documentation

6 Forming an Accreditation Team Who should be a part of the Accreditation Team? Should Board of Health members be a part of the Accreditation Team? How do I choose an Accreditation Coordinator? Does it need to be a full time position?

7 Who should be a part of the Accreditation Team? There’s no one right answer! Many local health departments solicit volunteers from the staff to be a part of the team. Remember that you want to hear from staff from across the agency on the accreditation team-including different levels and across programmatic and administrative areas.

8 Should Board of Health members be a part of the Accreditation Team? Can be beneficial if the individual is an active participant. However, if board of health members are not able to be active participants, it is still important to engage them throughout the process. Keep them informed of activities and make sure they know where the health department is in the accreditation preparation process. Use NACCHO’s resources to engage your board of health (or other local governing entity) in accreditation-available at Public Health and Accreditation 101 Presentations Podcasts—coming soon!

9 How do I choose an Accreditation Coordinator? Does it need to be a full time position? Some agencies have a full time Accreditation Coordinator, but they often have duties outside of accreditation (such as QI). Some agencies hire a new staff person to serve as the Accreditation Coordinator, while others appoint an existing staff person to the position. PHAB requires health departments applying for accreditation to appoint an Accreditation Coordinator, who is the primary point of contact throughout the accreditation process. NACCHO’s Accreditation Coordinator Position Description details the duties of the Accreditation Coordinator. This can help you decide who is the best person for the job. Available at:

10 What has been your experience forming an Accreditation Team?

11 Engaging Staff How do you handle staff who might have a negative attitude about accreditation? How do you educate staff about the standards and measures?

12 How do you handle staff who have a negative attitude about accreditation? Communicate about the importance of accreditation and how it impacts the work of all health department staff. Use NACCHO’s Accreditation 101 Presentation to help introduce staff to accreditation and understand their role. Available at: Discuss with staff why they feel negative about accreditation. Understand how much staff have to be engaged to be successful in accreditation-not everyone has to be involved to the same extent. Make it fun!

13 How do you educate staff about the standards and measures? Use staff newsletters, existing meetings (such as staff meetings and QI Council meetings). Talk about accreditation and the agency’s progress at each overall staff or department-level meeting. Engage division directors to discuss standards and measures with their staff and incorporate them into daily work. Encourage staff to think about their work and how they might contribute to documentation collection and selection.

14 How have you engaged your staff in the accreditation preparation process?

15 Collecting and Organizing Documentation When should we begin identifying and selecting documentation to submit to PHAB? What are some options for collecting and organizing documentation?

16 When should we begin identifying and selecting documentation to submit to PHAB? Identifying and collecting documentation early can be an important step in determining your agency’s readiness. This is not a process that can or should be rushed! Be sure to look at PHAB’s Standards and Measures to ensure that documentation collected fits into the appropriate time frame. Be flexible if you find documentation that may be a better fit or more strongly demonstrate how the agency meets a measure. Keep track of documentation as you select it. PHAB has an Excel spreadsheet that you can use. Northern Kentucky Health Department also created a spreadsheet (available in the APQI Toolkit) to track and evaluate documentation.Excel spreadsheetAPQI Toolkit

17 What are some options for collecting and organizing documentation? MindManager (cost—about $350 per license). NACCHO can provide a CD with a MindManager file, created by the Spokane Regional Health District, that is pre-populated with Version 1.0 of PHAB’s Standards and Measures. More information is available at GoogleDocs or DropBox—these are free options that allow you to store and share documentation. Use of health department’s shared drive. Stored on the Accreditation Coordinator’s computer There are many options—find what works best for your agency that will allow you to easily collect, store, and organize documentation to facilitate the upload process.

18 What strategies have you found helpful to identify, collect, and organize documentation?

19 Now, it’s your turn…. What tips or advice do you have for your peers around preparing for accreditation? What questions around accreditation do you have for your peers or for NACCHO?

20 Resources All accreditation, MAPP, and CHA and CHIP resources can be accessed at:

21 Next Webinar Save the date for Thursday, January 12 at 2:00PM ET for the next call in the Performance Improvement Technical Assistance Webinar Series. Visit for more information.

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