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YHD Brochure

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Established 1911
Christopher Spitters, M.D., M.P.H., Health Officer
Dennis Klukan, MSEPH, Administrator

What is Public Health?

Public Health uses prevention to deal with health threats affecting the community such as infectious, chronic disease control and drinking water protection.
- Public health consists mainly of evidence-based programs addressing well defined problems. Epidemiology (not bureaucracy) is the basic science of public health. Epi is the study of diseases and their control at the community level.
- It is the branch of our health care system that treats communities. For example infectious disease control is aimed at protecting the entire community; not treating individuals.
- Public health is not medical care for those in poverty (a common misconception), but a distinct community-oriented form of health care.

Public health is part of a community’s fundamental infrastructure, like fire protection and law enforcement. If our core public health services did not exist, communities would have to invent them. Examples:
- Food service inspections, sanitation and drinking water rules – such programs create a level playing field for commerce and development while protecting people from disease.
- TB control, immunizations, disease outbreak investigations, protecting at-risk newborns, smoking prevention – these prevent or reduce health problems that affect not just individuals, but families, businesses and the entire community.
- Preparedness for non-terrorist threats such as pandemic influenza, SARS, etc. together with public health’s role in homeland security is highly relevant across the entire population.

Local, state and federal funds support locally governed public health departments and adequate and stable funding is essential to maintaining public health protection.

Mission Statement
In Partnership with the People of Yakima County, the Public Health District Provides Prevention, Education, and Disease Control Services to Promote, Protect, and Enhance the Health and Safety of all.

Structure of the Yakima Health District
The Yakima Health District is an independent governmental entity with specific powers (RCW 70.46, 70.05) and additional implied powers to do whatever is necessary to carry out the specific powers.

The Yakima Health District Board of Health oversees and supervises all aspects of the health district. The local Board of Health is made up of the three County Commissioners, two local municipality officials, and two citizen members.

The Yakima Health District:

Has no power to tax or levy fines
Has a specific, specialized mission
Provides mandatory services for the county, cities, and towns
Is financed by fees for services provided, contract grants, and county contributions

Services Mandated by State Legislature

Communicable Disease Control Prevention and Treatment Services
Tuberculosis Services **
Sexually Transmitted Disease Services **
Immunization and Vaccine Preventable Disease Services
Disease Investigation and Prevention Services
Epidemiology Services
Water and Vector-borne Disease Services
HIV Services*
Food Service Licensure, Inspection and Certification Programs*
Vital Statistics Services
Solid and Hazardous Waste Services*
Drug Lab Clean-up Services*
"Good Samaritan" Blood-Borne Pathogen Exposure Testing
Water Recreation Inspection Services*
Waste Water Treatment Services*
School Sanitation Inspection Services *
Food Handler Education and Certification *
General Sanitation Inspection/Control
Such other services as mandated by State Board of Health

* Denotes services funded by fees or grants
** Denotes services fully or partially provided by Community Partners

History
With extensive irrigation projects, fertile soil, and phenomenal opportunity for farming, Yakima County grew from 13,462 at the 1900 U.S. census to 41,709 at the 1910 census. Few of the towns had sewer systems or public water systems. Coupling this lack of sanitation with the exploding population, the County experienced typhoid fever deaths at a rate 5 times higher than the national average. In 1911, city and county leaders sought federal assistance in helping identify why the death rate from typhoid fever was so high.

After an investigation by epidemiologist Dr. Leslie Lumsden, it was determined that the death rate was totally preventable by reasonable and inexpensive sanitary measures. Dr. Lumsden found that privies (outhouses) were placed next to wells and were contaminating the ground water. Irrigation ditches were open and exposed to pollution from privies, so that the water used for watering crops was contaminated with sewage. Animal excreta were improperly disposed of, creating a huge fly population throughout the Valley. The sewage of the city of North Yakima was discharged directly into the Yakima River. Downstream this water was used for irrigation and as a source of drinking water.

Dr. Lumsden recommended:

The formation of an efficient county health organization.
Rigid enforcement of the law requiring prompt reporting of all cases of typhoid fever.
Adequate official supervision over all recognized and suspected cases of typhoid fever to secure disinfection of patients and other measure to prevent the spread of infection.
The safeguarding of water supplies against dangerous pollution.
The disposal of human excreta in a sanitary manner so that the soil will not be polluted and flies will not be contaminated with this dangerous material.
Carrying out an energetic campaign against flies to lessen their numbers and to prevent them from having access to infectious matter and to foods and beverages.
Community education in respect to sanitation.

His recommendations produced a dramatic decline in the incidence of Typhoid Fever. This success prompted the Yakima County commissioners and the city council to establish a permanent local health department staffed by a physician, a sanitarian, a nurse, and a clerk. This success led the Public Health Service to publish a monograph entitled "The Causation and Prevention of Typhoid Fever - with Special Reference to Conditions Observed in Yakima County Washington." The monograph received wide distribution and became something of a bible for rural sanitation work as well as a blueprint for the development of county health departments. Although public health agencies existed in several counties prior to 1911, the Yakima achievements led to the development of county health departments in most parts of the country (taken in part from Plagues and Politics: The Story of the United States Public Health Service).

Yakima Health District Board of Health

Board of Health members:

Barbara Harrer, Mayor of Harrah
Rand Elliott , Yakima County Commissioner, Chair
Kevin Bouchey, Yakima County Commissioner, Vice-Chair
Mike Leita, Yakima County Commissioner
Maureen Adkison, Yakima City Council
Robyn Phillips-Madson, D.O, MPH., Citizen Member
J. R. Hale, O.D., Citizen Member

The Yakima Health District Board of Health is the executive body of the Health District. It is established by Title 70 of the Revised Code of Washington and is composed of members representing County and City Government and by two citizen members. The Board of Health establishes the mission of the District and is responsible for the appointment of the Health Officer and Administrator and the oversight of all functions including budget, mandated and voluntary activities and relationships with other agencies and units of government. Meetings are held on the last Wednesday of every month at 9am in our basement conference room and are open to the public. Download the Board of Health Meeting Schedule here.

RCW 70.05.060 Powers and Duties of Local Board of Health

Each local board of health shall have supervision over all matters pertaining to the preservation of the life and health of the people within its jurisdiction and shall:

Enforce through the local health officer or administrative officer appointed under RCW 70.05.040, the public health statutes of the State and rules & regulations promulgated by the State Board of Health and the Secretary of Health;

Supervise the maintenance of all health and sanitary measures for the protection of the public health within its jurisdiction;

Enact such local rules and regulations as are necessary in order to preserve, promote and improve the public health and provide for enforcement thereof;

Provide for the control and prevention of any dangerous, contagious or infectious disease within the jurisdiction of the local health department;

Provide for the prevention, control, and abatement of nuisances detrimental to the public health;
Make such reports to the State Board of Health through the local health officer or the administrative officer as the State Board of Health may require;

Establish fee schedules for issuing or renewing licenses or permits or for such other services as are authorized by the law and the rules and regulations of the State Board of Health: provided that such fees for services shall not exceed the actual cost of providing any such services.

The Washington State Board of Health webpage provides information about all local health jurisdictions' Boards of Health, along with meeting dates and times.