The results are in, and 14 of Arizona’s 15 county local health departments will be recognized through the Project Public health Ready recognition program. Coconino County led the way and was the first AZ local health department to receive recognition. When we saw how well the program worked in Coconino County, the counties and our preparedness team decided to make Project Public Health Ready recognition the primary deliverable under our CDC Public Health Preparedness Cooperative Agreement, and we’re sure glad we did.
Project Public Health Ready (PPHR) is a competency-based training and recognition program that assesses preparedness and assists local health departments, or groups of local health departments working collaboratively as a region, to respond to emergencies. The criteria are the only known national standards for local public health preparedness and are updated annually to incorporate the most recent federal initiatives. Each of the three primary project goals—all-hazards preparedness planning, workforce capacity development, and demonstration of readiness through exercises or real events—have a comprehensive list of standards that must be met in order to achieve recognition.
The applicants from Arizona have been developing their plans over the past year in hopes to obtain this prestigious accomplishment. Fifty-seven public health peers from across the nation evaluated the applications based on the PPHR criteria.
Well done and congratulations!
