New Releases 
Annual Update Recording Posted
Did you miss our 2022 Annual Update Webinar, or are you wanting a refresher? You can now view the recording online. Remember that you can also find webinar slides and a handful of helpful HDSAI Interpretation Resources on our website at Accreditation Process > Health Department Self-Assessment Instrument (HDSAI).
Where do I direct my questions?
As health departments prepare for site visits and start spending more time in the accreditation world, we know there are many questions! If you’re looking for answers, please consider signing up to join us for our office hours (March 8, May 10, June 7) or email our program at NCLHDaccreditation@unc.edu so that we can get you a thorough, timely response.
Dashboard Updates
Thank you to AACs who have notified our program regarding unexpected behavior on the Accreditation Dashboard. We have a handful of updates to share with you today regarding the dashboard, and we wanted to remind everyone to please contact our program at NCLHDaccreditation@unc.edu with Dashboard questions. The Accreditation dashboard is unique from other groups using the dashboard software, so it is best to contact us first and we will work directly with the vendor to resolve any issues.
Status Field Message
In the past few weeks, when trying to save updates to activities in the Dashboard, folks have been receiving a confusing “Status Fields ONLY Saved” message. This message was intended to only appear when a user attempted to edit activity or documentation requirement text; however, it was appearing whenever an edit was made. We have worked with the vendor so that this message will no longer appear, and it is now much clearer which fields are and aren’t editable in the Accreditation Dashboard in order to prevent future confusion. Thank you for everyone’s patience as we resolved this concern.
Receiving emails from VMSG and KCA
Many of you have email notifications set up as a part of your Accreditation Dashboard – and we do too! Our dashboard vendor noticed last week that they were seeing a lot of bounce-back emails from North Carolina email addresses. In order to ensure that your health department receives these helpful emails, please work with your IT team to whitelist @kca-inc.com and @VMSGDashboard.com email domains – specifically the following email addresses: VMSG@kca-inc.com, Andrea@kca-inc.com, Fred@kca-inc.com, Andrea@VMSGDashboard.com, and Fred@VMSGDashboard.com.
Accreditation in Action
Connecting Shared Experiences with Design Thinking
Thank you to our AACs who have signed up to generate ideas about “how might we better foster the sharing of accreditation ideas and experiences across health departments?” in partnership with students from the UNC-CH course “Design Thinking for Public Good.” The group will meet for the first time on March 9 to focus on inspiration. If you are wanting to be involved and haven’t yet signed up, it’s not too late to sign up for the ideation (April 13) and implementation (April 20) sessions, Wednesdays from 11:15 am-2:15 pm.
Registration OPEN for Dashboard and New AAC Trainings
Need a Dashboard refresher? New to an Agency Accreditation Coordinator role? Don’t wait to register for the Bi-Annual Dashboard Webinar and Accreditation 101: New AAC Training taking place on Tuesday, April 26. Registration is open until noon on Monday, April 25.
Quality Improvement in Action
We hope everyone who attended the Quality Improvement (QI) Webinar on February 22 had fun and learned something new! Meredith from Population Health Improvement Partners gave us an awesome overview of many QI tools that we can incorporate in both big and small ways into our workflow. We have now posted the webinar slides in our online archive, and we will be posting the fully captioned recording in the next few weeks. We hope these resources can serve as great resources for those looking to incorporate quality improvement into your health department’s accreditation cycle!
Key Dates
Tuesday, March 8, 2022: March Accreditation Office Hours from 9-10:00 a.m.
Virtual Meeting with breakout rooms for HDSAI Interpretation, NCLHDA Dashboard, and Quality Improvement. There is no cost to attend; however, registration is required. Register.
Friday, March 11: NCLHDA Board Meeting from 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
Virtual Board meeting. View draft agenda and meeting details.
Tuesday, April 26, 2022: Bi-Annual Dashboard Overview Webinar from 9-10:30 a.m.
Webinar. There is no cost to attend; however, registration is required. Register.
Tuesday, April 26, 2022: Accreditation 101: New Agency Accreditation Coordinator (AAC) Training from 12:30-5 p.m.
Virtual Training. There is no cost to attend; however, Dashboard Overview Webinar is a pre-requisite and registration is required. Register.
Interested to explore all upcoming events? Check out our Calendar page online!
Tips and Tricks for Accreditation Success: Stories from the Field
Times of Transitions!
This month we said goodbye to beloved AACs and welcomed in an exciting new group of AACs and Accreditation Team Members! We want to send a special farewell to Beth Dickens at Chatham County, who transitioned out of her AAC role in February after years of being a dedicated AAC leader in our state.
While goodbyes are hard, we are overjoyed by recent emails of expanding Accreditation Teams – new co-AACs, new Accreditation Team members joining the community. Given how much growth there is, we have added an option to self-subscribe to the listserv at the bottom of these email messages. Please forward these monthly highlights along to team members as you see fit and invite your teammates to subscribe to receive our monthly updates.
We want to hear from you
Share your tips and tricks for accreditation success with other local health departments across the state. If you have a tip or trick that you would like to share, send a summary – no more than 500 words – including the activity addressed and any lessons learned. Please send your submission to NCLHDaccreditation@unc.edu. Stories will be shared via these monthly highlights.