Strategies for How to Align CoIIN and Public Health Accreditation Activities

Accreditation for health departments has been implemented to standardize the assessment and measurement of performance of public health departments at the state, local and tribal levels. Current efforts and initiatives like the Collaborative Improvement & Innovation Network to Reduce Infant Mortality (Infant Mortality CoIIN) often intersect with state efforts to submit accreditation applications, allowing public health officials to combine approaches and activities for both.

A new issue brief from ASTHO and NICHQ highlights how the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) has aligns its participation in IM CoIIN alongside earning accreditation from the Public Health Accreditation Board. OSDH leadership capitalized on an opportunity to use the intersections between these initiatives to align their objectives and efforts by ensuring that strategies informed work to avoid redundancies and achieve efficiency among team members.

Collaboration and quality improvement (QI) are two of the most significant intersections between accreditation and IM CoIIN. The former is a requirement for both and allows the OSDH to develop relationships within public health, healthcare and the community to create better systems for everyone. The latter is a key component in how states address challenges of infant mortality, which aligns with the accreditation process’ intended outcome of empowering agencies to identify areas for improvement.

“The CoIIN approach, and IM CoIIN specifically, is about creating connections and engagement within states so every participant can contribute to better infant health outcomes,” says Zhandra Levesque, MPH, associate project director at NICHQ. “That this initiative aligns with larger accreditation efforts should ensure that state health departments have the capacity to improve all of their health systems.”

Read the new issue brief from ASTHO and NASHP: Using Maternal and Child Health Quality Improvement Efforts to Advance State Health Agency Accreditation.