District proposes sharing health officer with Skagit County

Published 1:30 am Sunday, December 11, 2016

EVERETT — When Dr. Gary Goldbaum, health officer for the Snohomish Health District retires in March, his successor may well have a different role.

Goldbaum has served as the county’s lead public health official as well as the agency’s chief executive, running an organization with 146 employees.

A proposal being considered by the health district’s board would divide those two duties and add some new ones.

The health district is considering having the new health officer shared part-time with Skagit County Public Health.

Skagit County Commissioners have approved the concept of a shared health officer and submitted a letter of intent to the Snohomish Health District, said Jennifer Johnson, director of Skagit County Public Health.

If approved, the Snohomish Health District’s health officer would work about a quarter of the time for Skagit Public Health.

Snohomish County has a population of 772,860; Skagit’s population is 122, 270, according to the state’s Office of Financial Management.

Snohomish and Skagit public health agencies would not be the first to share a health officer. “This is not a new model,” Johnson said “It’s been proven to be very successful.”

Thurston County currently has a full-time health officer and contracts a part-time position with Lewis County for health officer services, according to Heather Thomas, a Snohomish Health District spokeswoman.

Goldbaum said he thinks that separating the top administrative and medical roles at the health district makes sense, especially with the proposal for the health officer to have part-time duties in Skagit County.

Such a move has been a trend in public health, looking at issues more regionally, he said.

In the past, that’s happened with issues such as the battle against AIDS and preparing for an emergency response to disease outbreaks like the swine flu epidemic of 2009.

“It’s possible to share across jurisdictions,” Goldbaum said.

Health alerts that Goldbaum sends to the medical community on topics such as E. coli outbreaks or Zika infections already are being shared in Skagit County, he said. “I’m communicating the same message,” Goldbaum said.

Having someone at the health district as the designated administrator would allow the person to focus on budget and administrative issues, Goldbaum said.

This would free up time for the health officer to build connections in the community with physicians, first responders and other organizations that may need an advocate to speak out on public health issues, Goldbaum said.

Goldbaum joined the Snohomish Health District in February 2007. He previously worked at Public Health — Seattle &King County in the AIDS Prevention Project.

He announced in September that he would be leaving the health district in March. Goldbaum said he wanted to give the health district ample notice of his plans so it would have time to hire a replacement. Recruitment of a new health officer is expected to begin soon.

Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486; salyer@heraldnet.com.