San Francisco Department of Public Health earns national accreditation

Karen Pierce, the department—s public health accreditation coordinator, told the Health Commission that San Francisco completed a multi-year accreditation process and —we did get accredited,— emphasizing staff and community participation.

The commission learned the department set accreditation as a five-year goal in 2011, assembled required prerequisite documents, and submitted formal documentation on March 9, 2016 that included 324 supporting examples. A site visit took place in November; Pierce said site visitors praised the department—s sustained engagement with community partners and client-centered program design but recommended improving written policies and documentation processes.

Director Garcia told commissioners the accreditation validates local practices and will require annual reporting to the accreditation board for five years. Pierce said the board—s recommendations were largely process-focused and that the department will implement a performance-management system and publish dashboards showing progress on strategic priorities.

Commissioners congratulated staff and asked for clarifications about how quality-improvement work will be documented and how the department will handle branding and commissioner tracking. Pierce said the department will incorporate a formal quality-improvement plan, continue results-based accountability for community engagement and adopt Lean methods to support internal process improvement.

The commission did not take any formal vote related to accreditation at today—s meeting; next steps are implementation of written policies, annual reporting to the accreditation board and integration of performance dashboards into commission oversight.