COLUMBIA - South Carolina has received a $450,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to prepare for voluntary national accreditation of health departments and work on quality improvement initiatives, the state Department of Health and Environmental Control announced today.

"South Carolina is one of 16 states chosen to participate in the program," said Joseph Kyle, director of DHEC's Office of Performance Management. "DHEC will be coordinating the grant for the state and working with experts from the University of South Carolina to implement two multi-region learning collaboratives in two public health regions."

Kyle said the topics that each collaborative will address have not been finalized, but will include one overall health improvement measure, and one measure that addresses DHEC's local health department’s internal capacity and operations.

"The grant will also support other quality improvement trainings with DHEC staff across the state," Kyle said. "The results and lessons learned from the collaboratives and trainings will enable DHEC to provide better public health services and be prepared for a national voluntary accreditation of our public health departments."

According to Kyle, the voluntary accreditation effort will begin in

2011 as a way to assist local and state health departments ensure they are providing quality public health services and programs to improve the health of their community.

"DHEC is always striving to provide the best quality public health services that will benefit the greatest number of South Carolinians,"

said Lisa F. Waddell, M.D., DHEC's deputy commissioner for Health Services. "Our current efforts in implementing a statewide performance management system demonstrate our commitment to providing quality services. This grant will provide important knowledge and skills that will help us achieve our ultimate goal, which is to become the healthiest state in the nation."

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