Accreditation of the Public Health
Right now, it is not obligatory for the local authorities to accredit their public health; thus, it is at their discretion to choose either to accredit their public health or not to accredit them. While this may appear reasonable and good to our local authority, it might not be either good or reasonable to the health organizations in the municipality because the local authority may choose never to accredit its public health thereby fail to improve it. In relation to this fact, I would like to bring to your attention the need to establish a mandatory process of accrediting the public health in this local authority. I will do this by evaluating both the pros and cons of this process with respect to the best practices of this local authority.Accreditation of the Public Health
Starting with the pros, it would be important for you as the policy maker in this local authority to note the following advantages the local authority would enjoy once it accredits its public health. First, accreditation would help in the continuous quality improvement of the health services offered to the local community. It would help the medical practitioners in assessing and evaluating the services, they offer to the community thereby help in offering quality services that meet the needs of the members of the community. At the same time, it would help in collecting the necessary data that is fundamental in tracking down the progress made in the public health thereby help in making the necessary adjustments in the public health. Second, accreditation would help the health organizations in this local authority to standardize their daily practices and streamline them in line with the best practices of health care. With regard to this issue, the management teams in health organizations would commit themselves to understanding and establishing the best practices in health care. Once they do it, they would commit themselves to following them thereby help the local authority improve the public health. Third, accreditation in the public health would help in meeting the organizational standards of the local authority in improving the public health. In this case, it would enable the health organizations streamline their policies and efforts towards improving the public health. Fourth, accreditation in the public health would help in measuring the accountability of the local authority in offering health services to the members of the community. It would enable the members of the public give their responses regarding the public health and with the help of those responses, the local authority would evaluate ways of improving the public health. Finally, accreditation would help in improving the public trust in the local authority and improve the consistency of the local authority in dealing with health issues thereby help improve public health.Accreditation of the Public Health
Nevertheless, while accreditation in the public health would bring the above advantages to the local authority, it would as well bring the following disadvantages. First, it would pose challenges to the local authority in streamlining its policies and measures with the accreditation process. Second, it would require time and money to conduct a thoroughly accreditation process thereby increase expenses in the local authority. Third, it would be mandatory for the local authority to conduct it within the specified time such that failure to conduct it would be a liability issue. Despite these challenges, accreditation of the public health remains a good thing to the local authority.
Therefore, based on the above advantages and with respect to a recent survey I conducted with the local health department and the local community, it would be important for the local authority to establish a mandatory accreditation process in the public health. The members of the public welcome it while the local health department acknowledges its importance in improving the public health. For this reason, accreditation in the public health remains a viable option for this local authority and I would encourage you to initiate it without hesitation.Accreditation of the Public Health