Kitsap Public Health District highlights strategic plan progress as county ranks No. 1 in community conditions

Kitsap Public Health District staff on April 3 reviewed a strategic‑plan implementation process launched in 2023 and highlighted completed activities for 2024 while noting data limitations in national rankings that nevertheless placed Kitsap first in Washington for community conditions.

“We are number 1,” said a board member after the district noted the University of Wisconsin Public Health Institute’s 2025 county health rankings. Yolanda Fong, district administrator, told the board that Kitsap “is ranked as the top county in Washington state under the community conditions area.” She cautioned the board the ranking uses national data sources that can be older and aggregated.

Candace Atizmi Bevans, equity and performance program manager, briefed the board on the district’s strategic implementation plan (SIP), an operational companion to the district’s strategic plan that breaks the plan into initiatives, objectives and quarterly activities. She said the board-approved initiatives were adopted under a board resolution (noted in the presentation as resolution 2023-33) and cover five broad areas: communicable disease, chronic disease and injury prevention (including parent-child health), environmental health, public health infrastructure and administrative services.

Bevans told the board that 2024 began with an ambitious 322 activities and that staff completed 169 of those items. For 2025 the district started with 184 activities and is focused on tighter scoping, clearer documentation of quarterly check-ins and improved accountability for incomplete or delayed tasks.

Bevans described how the SIP categorizes activity status (complete, on track, falling behind) and explained managers review activities quarterly to adjust language, metrics or due dates as needed. She highlighted cross‑agency work completed in 2024, including quarterly data exchange meetings with St. Michael Medical Center emergency department and urgent care partners, a behavioral‑health supports list for pregnant and parenting families, and a technical advisory group to prepare for an updated on‑site sewage ordinance that the board approved the prior month.

Board members asked how recent external reviews (a Johns Hopkins report referenced in discussion) fit into the SIP; staff said infrastructure‑related work from that review was incorporated into Initiative 4 and into ongoing partnership activities.

Ending: District staff said the SIP is a living document and that added emphasis in 2025 will be on completion rates and improved documentation of reasons for delayed activities.