Denton County Public Health has received national recognition from Project Public Health Ready for its ability to plan for, respond to, and recover from public health emergencies, according to a DCPH news release.
DCPH is the only local health department in North Texas with PPHR recognition, and it’s only the eighth department in the state to receive this recognition since the inception of PPHR in 2004.
“Public health preparedness is vital to a community’s resiliency,” said Juan Rodriguez, Assistant Director and Chief Epidemiologist at DCPH. “Achieving this recognition highlights the diligent work and dedication of our public health preparedness team.”
DCPH demonstrated public health preparedness capabilities by meeting the comprehensive preparedness benchmarks required by PPHR, a unique partnership between the National Association of County and City Health Officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to the news release. PPHR aims to protect the public’s health and strengthen the public health infrastructure by equipping local health departments with sustainable tools to plan, train, and exercise using a continuous quality improvement model.
“From training to recovery, our team has plans in place to ensure Denton County can prepare for, respond to, and recover from public health emergencies,” said Bob Martinez, Public Health Preparedness Coordinator for DCPH.“We will continue our work in striving for public health preparedness for Denton County and encourage our community members to strive for personal preparedness, too. Opportunities to volunteer through our MRC program allow community members to get involved in public health preparedness through exercises, training, and mock events.”
PPHR recognition confirms DCPH has a thorough and coordinated emergency response plan in place and staff have training to protect the health of their community during an emergency. Local health departments recognized by PPHR undergo a rigorous evaluation by peer review to assess their ability to meet a set of national standards for public health preparedness.
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