Evergreen Reporter

OLYMPIA – As the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) has developed a transformational plan to reenergize the agency’s priorities, focus, and commitment to its vision of equity and optimal health for all.

The plan was informed by formal and informal discussions and aims to reimagine health leveraging our agency’s core values of equity, innovation, and engagement (EIE). This plan focuses on five priority areas followed by six strategies. The overall vision emphasizes DOH’s commitment to health for all by creating policies and conditions so every Washingtonian can live their healthiest lives. The plan recognizes the importance of collaborating with communities, community-based organizations, local public health, governmental partners, health care providers/systems, private sector, Tribal Nations and many more, to move us forward in improving health for all Washingtonians. 

“Effective and evolving public health will always be a whole-community effort, and we need to move from being transactional to transformational,” said Umair A. Shah, MD, MPH, Secretary of Health. “We are also re-energizing our focus on equity, innovation, and engagement to build a more robust public health system. This plan is not only a way for us to put many of the lessons we’ve learned during COVID to work, but also to revisit and transform our pre-COVID mission and create a responsive public health system for the future.”

The intent is to be responsive to the complex public health needs in Washington now, but to also be innovative and flexibly to adjust as those needs change and to quickly respond as emerging challenges appear. 

Original source can be found here.