A CERTIFICATE OF ACCREDITATION was presented to Health Director Larry Johnson and Health Board vice chair Patricia Cords (center) on Wednesday, Jan. 15 during the Shiawassee Board of Commissioners’ Committee of the Whole meeting. Presenting the local health accreditation certificate was Laura de la Rambelje, the director of Local Health Services with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
Before de la Rambelje presented the framed certificate to Johnson and Cords, she briefly explained local public health accreditation and its importance.
“Who in here is familiar with local public health accreditation in Michigan?” asked de la Rambelje in opening. The commissioners and citizens present silently conceded their lack of knowledge on the topic, slowly scanning the room for the first hand to be raised. After a brief moment of awkward silence, everyone eventually found the one hand in the air, belonging to Johnson, which elicited a roar of relieved laughter from the 25 to 30 people in attendance.
De la Rambelje would go on to note that, to the best of her knowledge, the Shiawassee County Health Department was the only one of the state’s 45 county health departments to receive a 100 percent score on its accreditation inspection for two consecutive years.
(Independent Photo/Graham Sturgeon)
