Michigan's Accreditation Quality Improvement Process (AQIP) Workgroup recently received the 2007 Jim Parker Memorial Award. The award is given annually to a program or project with a commitment to collaboration and one that fosters a strong sense of state and local partnership.

The award is offered jointly by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officers (ASTHO), the Association of State and Territorial Local Health Liaison Officials (ASTHLO), the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Mary Kushion, AQIP chairperson, along with Janet Olszewski, director of the Michigan Department of Community Health, and Debra Scamarcia Tews, of the AQIP workgroup, accepted the award Sept. 10 at the ASTHO-NACCHO annual conference in Sacramento, Calif.

"Receiving the award is a fitting tribute to the hard work and collaborative efforts put forth by Michigan's local and state health officials," said Kushion, health officer of the Central Michigan District Health Department. "It is definitely a team effort which has developed into a centralized, credible venue to discuss concerns, to share results and to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of Michigan's local public health accreditation program."

The award was established in 1993 to honor the memory of Jim Parker, who served as director of the Community Health Services Division of the Minnesota Department of Health. Parker was a strong advocate for local and state health department collaboration and his influence extended throughout the public health community due to his work on national health efforts.

The AQIP Workgroup was formed in March 2003 by the Michigan Department of Community Health at the recommendation of the Michigan Local Public Health Accreditation Commission. AQIP was created to identify areas of success and concern with Michigan's Local Public Health Accreditation Program. The group seeks to increase the value of accreditation, increase external customer and local and state health department satisfaction in addition to addressing concerns.

The local-state workgroup established a centralized forum to ensure all stakeholders in the public health system were involved in identifying opportunities for improvement and in developing recommendations for on-going process improvement. The workgroup identified 44 recommendations for improvement and has monitored the successful implementation of those recommendations.

The locally driven 13-member AQIP Workgroup is comprised of nine representatives from local public health, three from state agencies and one from the Michigan Public Health Institute.