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Norwalk health department reports big gains in outreach, outlines performance plan
Summary
Department staff told the Board of Health that community-engagement events have exceeded annual goals by about 200% and Know Your Numbers screenings have reached roughly 40% more people than targeted; staff also described staffing gaps in epidemiology and plans for updated scorecards and policy governance.
Daniela, a health department staff member, presented the Norwalk health department's FY25–26 performance-management update to the Board of Health on May 26, saying the system is being used to guide division-level improvements and upcoming accreditation work.
The presentation highlighted several measurable gains: the community-health team has exceeded its annual goal for engagement activities by roughly 200%, and Know Your Numbers screening events have reached about 40% more participants than originally targeted, Daniela said. "With six Know Your Numbers events held this quarter, the team screened significantly more people than planned," she said.
Daniela reviewed division-specific work to improve performance. In administration, an intern and a billing consultant are helping complete the annual clinical-fee review and update vaccine pricing. Emergency-preparedness measures lagged where federal funding interrupted incident-command-system training availability; staff said courses are returning and training counts should rise. Environmental health assigned specific body-care establishments to inspectors and reported massage-establishment inspections at 11% above target after that change. Daniela said a quality-improvement project begun in November 2025 will standardize walk-in hours and increase inspector field time, with post-test data collection scheduled for July.
On epidemiology, Daniela said the division has been temporarily rolled up into the director's office after the departure of the prior program director. The department used workforce-development grant funds to hire a part-time public-health specialist to reestablish infectious-disease follow-up; staff reported that 100% of assigned cases were addressed with that support. Daniela said a full-time epidemiologist position is posted and recruitment is under way.
Board members pressed on data continuity and staffing. Anthony Santella expressed concern that losing one epidemiologist appeared to halt some data collection; Daniela and Director Diana D'Amour said other part-time staff are covering key functions while recruitment continues. "We have a part-time public-health analyst who is helping with data pulls, but she is only 19.5 hours per week," D'Amour said, noting that the department is moving forward with hiring.
Daniela closed by saying the department will continue quarter 4 data collection, build division-level scorecards, and fold the year’s findings into the annual analysis beginning in July to support accreditation and improvement work.
The board took no formal action on the presentation; questions focused on methods, staffing and the timeline for bringing epidemiology staffing back to full capacity.
