UK professor named chair of new national board that will grant accreditation to local, state and other health departments

Dr. F. Douglas Scutchfield, director of the National Coordinating Center for Public Health Services and Systems Research and the Peter P. Bosomworth Professor of Health Services Research and Policy at the University of Kentucky College of Public Health, has been named chair of the first Accreditation Committee of the Public Health Accreditation Board.

Jointly funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the board was created to  administer the new accreditation process for state, local, tribal, and territorial health departments. The program was launched in September 2011, and health departments are already beginning to apply. The 11-member Accreditation Committee will make accreditation decisions on behalf of the PHAB board of directors, a UK press release said.