PORTSMOUTH, Ohio — The Portsmouth City Health Department has maintained its national accreditation through the Public Health Accreditation Board for another five years, the department announced.
Administrator and Accreditation Coordinator Belinda Leslie announced the reaccreditation, saying it reflects the department’s continued commitment to meeting national public health standards, improving the quality of its services and protecting the health and safety of the Portsmouth community.
PHAB is the national nonprofit organization that administers the only accreditation program for public health departments in the country, evaluating agencies against a set of standards covering areas such as disease prevention, emergency preparedness and community health assessment. Accreditation lasts five years, after which a health department must undergo a reaccreditation review to demonstrate it has sustained those standards and pursued continuous quality improvement, according to PHAB.
Ohio was among the earliest states to push local health departments toward national accreditation. State law directed the Ohio Department of Health to require local health districts to apply for accreditation by July 1, 2018, and to become accredited by July 1, 2020, a mandate written into the Ohio Revised Code.
The health department credited its staff, Board of Health, community partners and residents for helping it maintain its accreditation status.
The information contained in this story was obtained from the Portsmouth City Health Department.
