Exploring Tribal Public Health Accreditation

1. Exploring Tribal Public Health Accreditation National Indian Health Board Call for Input on Draft National Standards May 2009

2. Overview • Overview - Public Health Accreditation • Goals of NIHB Project • Call for Input on draft national standards

3. Background • Accreditation for Public Health • Completely voluntary and represents excellence in public health practice in Indian country • Tool for quality improvement and accountability • Standards - that all programs should meet • Measures - to indicate if meet standards • Focus is public health – a much broader set of services and programs that serve communities

4. Exploring Tribal Public Health Accreditation • National Indian Health Board • Grant: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation • Purpose: to assess the feasibility of the promotion of voluntary public health accreditation and public health standards in Indian Country • Part of a larger national initiative with the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB)

5. Exploring Tribal Public Health Accreditation • Objectives of NIHB Project: • Establish an Advisory Panel • Review past accreditation efforts in Indian country • Explore/Discuss the potential for voluntary public health accreditation in Indian country • Benefits, challenges, barriers, ideas… • Gather recommendations from Indian country • Process, resources needed, potential partnerships

6. Exploring Tribal Public Health Accreditation Progress so far: • Tribal Advisory Board established (4 meetings) • Tribal Input Sessions held to introduce project and gather input: • NIHB Public Health Summit 5/2008, Green Bay, WI • NIHB Annual Consumer Conference 9/2008, Temecula, CA • National Congress of American Indians 10/08 Phoenix, AZ • NIHB Board Meeting 1/09 Washington, DC • National Call for Input - in progress; to be completed by 5/31/09 • Strategic Planning - in progress; to be completed by 6/30/06

7. Input so far • Positive response to concept of public health accreditation – broader than just health services • Interest in tribes having a leadership role • Challenges include the diversity of public health delivery in Indian country, time, capacity and cost to seek accreditation, multiple entities involved • Benefits of public health accreditation (next slide)

8. Benefits Public Health Accreditation will result in better quality of and access to culturally appropriate public health services for your community because: • Helps define and strengthen the role and identify responsibilities of tribal governments in regulating public health • Helps define, educate and raise visibility about public health benefits in your tribal community • Clarifies that public health includes prevention and wellness, which can reduce health disparities • Provides an opportunity for tribal communities to plan for wellness in their communities

9. Benefits (continued) • It is a way to assess strengths and areas for improvement in public health services • Helps encourage better partnerships with entities that do public health for our communities, including states, counties, local, tribes, federal, private, non-profits, etc. • May lead to more resources for public health, such as and grant opportunities and save costs in the long run

10. Draft Standards – Call for Input • Based on public health domains • Standards developed for each domain • Measures for how to meet standards • Scoring – 5 point scale/minimum level to achieve accreditation - unknown, relative weighting unknown yet • Two versions: States/Local Health Departments • Tribal version – awaiting our input/decisions • National vetting of draft standards in progress

11. Summary of Standards

12. Example

13. NIHB Call for Input • Review of draft standards – questions • Does your tribe or community currently meet the standards in general? If not which standards would be most problematic for you to meet? • What partners in your community are essential to meeting all these standards? • What are the biggest barriers or challenges to your community or tribe meeting these standards and measures? • What suggestion do you have for editing or adopting these standards and measures? • Do you think that these standards may serve an important role in improving relationships with potential tribal public health partners, such as the state and local health departments/ • What are your suggestions for the National Indian Health Board and PHAB to make sure these standards and measures apply for tribes that want to volunteer to achieve public health accreditation?

14. NIHB Call for Input • Please submit your responses to NIHB by 5/31/09 – form provided

15. Exploring Tribal Public Health Accreditation Thank you for providing input for this important NIHB project!