LAWTON – The Comanche County Health Department (CCHD) has successfully completed a review process to maintain national accreditation status through the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB). The nonprofit PHAB works to advance and transform public health practice by championing performance improvement, strong infrastructure, and innovation.
“We are pleased to again be recognized by the Public Health Accreditation Board for achieving national standards that foster effectiveness and promote continuous quality improvement,” OSDH Region 5 Director Brandie Combs said. “We hope this announcement, coming in the midst of our dynamic public health response to COVID-19, will reassure our community, partner organizations, and elected officials that the services we provide are responsive to the needs of our community.”
The accreditation process entailed review of the health department’s organizational structure, its quality improvements and programs we implement in the community, she said.
“We are pleased to have exceptional partners in Comanche County,” Ms. Combs said. Those include “our school systems, Lawton Public Schools nurses who help with our efforts, hospitals that support us from case investigations to vaccination efforts, the City of Lawton and the Town of Medicine Park, the Wichita
Mountains Wildlife Refuge, Fort Sill and the Chamber of Commerce.
“We’re excited” about the announcement, Combs said. The CCHD “was one of the first 11 in the nation to be accredited,” she said.
The County Health Department achieved initial national accreditation status through PHAB on February 27, 2013, after undergoing a rigorous, multi-faceted, peer reviewed assessment process to ensure it met a set of quality standards and measures. The latest announcement goes a step further by demonstrating that the Health Department has the capacity to become increasingly effective at improving the health of Comanche County residents.
In maintaining its accreditation status for another five years, the CCHD has demonstrated that it meets PHAB’s quality standards and measures and has the capacity to continue to evolve, improve and advance.
PHAB’s accreditation program, which receives support from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, sets standards against which the nation’s governmental public health departments can continuously improve the quality of their services and performance.
Often called the “backbone” of the public health system, public health departments are on the front lines of communities’ efforts to protect and promote health and prevent disease and injury.