N.C. Institute for Public Health instrumental in new effort to improve public health strategies
| February 02, 2007 | |
| North Carolina is one of 10 states selected to lead a national effort aimed at improving the quality of public health strategies, the National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI) has announced. Each of the chosen states was awarded a grant of up to $150,000 from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).
RWJF senior program officer Pamela Russo said that the ultimate goal of the effort is “[to increase] the ability of public health agencies to protect and improve the health of the people in the communities they serve.” The North Carolina Institute for Public Health (NCIPH), the service and outreach arm of the UNC School of Public Health, has been instrumental since 2002 in offering support to the accreditation process for North Carolina’s local health departments. That year, the N.C. Division of Public Health and the N.C. Association of Local Health Directors undertook an initiative to develop a mandatory, standards-based system for accrediting local public health departments throughout the state. The current project acknowledges the momentum surrounding a national voluntary accreditation program for public health departments. According to NNPHI chief executive officer Joseph Kimbrell, the project, called the Multi-state Learning Collaborative II, or MLC-2, will identify “valuable tools that can be used by health departments as they prepare for accreditation.” The chosen states are expected to produce models for action nationwide and will explore and exchange best practices, lessons learned, and quality improvement tools. 
Photograph of Dr. Mary Davis
NCIPH MLC-2 evaluator Dr. Mary Davis says that “a primary focus of the activities of these states is networking — through conference calls, face-to-face meetings and sharing practices.” The first meeting of the collaborative will occur in Cincinnati Feb. 7-9. Dr. Davis will join Dr. Ed Baker, NCIPH director, Dr. Rachel Stevens and Monecia Thomas at the meeting. Other states selected for the collaborative project include Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio and Washington. 
Photograph of Dr. Ed Baker
NCIPH is the service and outreach arm of the School of Public Health. Its mission is to bring the public health scholarship and practice communities together to inform and stimulate scholars and to empower practitioners for the common purpose of improving the public’s health and human well-being. To learn more about NCIPH’s administrative role in North Carolina’s accreditation efforts, visit sph.unc.edu/nciph/nciph-home/. # # # For more information, contact Ramona DuBose, director of communications for the UNC School of Public Health, by telephone at 919-966-7467 or by email at ramona_dubose@unc.edu. |
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