A grant has been awarded to Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department to help it prepare for national accreditation.

The $15,000 grant was awarded by the National Association of County and City Health Officials. More than 60 health departments were considered but only 21 grants were presented.

The national accreditation is a process that will begin in 2011 to help ensure the quality of public health services. Most of the grant will be used to pay for a quality improvement consultant for staff training, project development and implementation and assistance with developing project reports for the national association.

“Our current focus is on selecting the specific area for improvement, which will likely be in the area of giving people the information they need to make healthy choices,” health department director Dan Partridge said.