COMANCHE CO., Okla_ Comanche County's Health Department is one of the
best in the country.
The department
recently received accreditation, and it's only one out of eleven in the nation
to receive the status. Last December, the Public Health Accreditation Board
visited the department. They took a close look at the efficiency and management
of the department's services and found it did extremely well.
Comanche County
Health Department Director Brandie O'Connor said it means they are on the right
track to keeping residents healthy, and with this accreditation, they have even
more of a reason to do so.
They've been
working on it for two years, and now the Comanche County Health Department is
officially accredited.
O'Connor said
it's an essential title.
"With
accreditation comes the potential to say to potential donors and grant donors
that we meet these public standards," O'Connor said. "We have a public health
work force, we have community partners and we have a system in place that meets
these national standards. We excel in them."
Accreditation
Coordinator Dana Webb-Randall said the department has been anxiously waiting on
the results for a while. The Public Health Accreditation Board visited them
back in December.
"It was an
anxious time just waiting to see," Webb-Randall said. "It was really important
to us to try to be one of the firsts accredited, since we had gone through that
beta test and had been preparing up until this point."
Dana said the
board based its decision on "ten essential public health services", from
educating people on health to enforcing laws to protect the community's health.
She worked with the entire staff, gathering and coordinating information and
showing over 500 pages of documented proof that the department did meet all the
necessary requirements.
"It's a
huge, big deal to me," Webb-Randall said. "We're showing that we're able to
meet those national standards, and we haven't been able to do that up until
this point."
This allows
them to continue to provide services that are now considered top notch.
"We're
going to use it for bragging rights," Webb-Randall said. "We're going to have
that accreditation seal on our applications and letter heads and be very, very
proud."
O'Connor said
they have to reapply for accreditation every five years. The department also works
with health departments in Caddo, Kiowa and Cotton Counties.
They hope to have them accredited within that time as well.
The Oklahoma State
Department of Health and Oklahoma City-County Health Departments were also
accredited.
