Public Health Department accreditation consists of adoption of a set of standards, a process to measure health department performance against those standards, and recognition for those departments that meet the standards. Public health accreditation standards a) define the expectations for all public health departments that seek to become accredited; b) aims to improve the quality of practice; and c) reviews the performance within public health departments. Accreditation demonstrates the capacity of the public health department to deliver the three core functions and the ten essential services of public health.