County 25th in health rankings

No West Nile virus detected in Mason County

Matt Baide | Apr 06, 20230

Mason County ranked 25th out of the state’s 39 counties in health outcomes as measured by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute in a study released last week.

At the Mason County Board of Health meeting March 28, Director of Community Serivces Dave Windom talked about the ranking prior to its release, stating he wanted to make the point that because the county moves up or down in the rankings doesn’t mean it is better or worse.

“Also, I saw the measures changed, so they’re not measuring things the way they were last time,” Windom said. “Some of the measures didn’t change so we’re able to track trends over time, but with those measures that did change, we have to start that process over, and it just becomes a snapshot in time. Some of the measures aren’t exactly fair to the small, rural jurisdictions. For example, if you look at Ferry County, it rates them very low in recreational opportunities even though you can go hunting, fishing, skiing. There’s a bike trail that goes to Canada and back but they don’t have access to a Gold’s Gym so they don’t have recreational opportunities, according to the way the survey is written. There are a number of things like that we get penalized for in particular, and that’s the number of people per physician and the number of people per patient because a lot of our medical traffic moves out of county, it shows as having a very high ratio of physicians per patient, when really you take into account the overall picture, we’re not that high.”

The top three counties in the health outcomes category are San Juan, King and Douglas counties. The three worst counties are Ferry, Pend Oreille and Grays Harbor counties.

Mason County ranks 27 among length of life, with an expected lifespan of 79.2 years.

In the overall health factors rankings, Mason County ranks 31st out of 39 counties. The top three counties in health factors are King, Kitsap and San Juan counties. The three worst counties are Ferry, Yakima and Okanogan.

“We don’t take them as gospel amongst ourselves,” Windom said. “It’s just a snapshot in time.”

Environmental Health Manager Ian Tracy updated the health board about staffing updates, including three new hires.

There is also exploration on funding mechanisms for county cleanup of garbage, with several properties where typical code enforcement tools are ineffective. The situations often involve a property owner who is physically and financially unable to clean up their property. Many of the landowners have stated they would be willing to allow the county to clean up the property and then apply a lien to cover costs. There are also vacant properties with significant junk accumulations where the owner lives out of state and does not communicate or respond to notices. Judgments and fines from the hearing examiner do not result in cleanup until a real estate transaction or the property is developed, which can take 10 to 20 years, if not longer, according to the report.

Tracy also reported the county will receive two grants will work expected to begin July 1. The first grant is through the Mason Conservation District and will allow staff to send out educational mailers and host public meetings, with outreach work focused on South Sound and Oakland Bay. The second grant is through Pierce County and the South Sound Partnership focused on pollution and correction work, and will likely lead to hiring a third water-quality employee.

Mason County conducted West Nile virus monitoring in 2022, according to Tracy, and there was no West Nile virus detected in Mason County. The virus was detected in Kittitas and Benton counties, according to the board of health information packet.

Mason County Health Specialist Christina Muller-Shinn gave a presentation to the health board about behavioral health systems.

Muller-Shinn talked about the Mason County opioid response plan from 2016 to 2019, and talked about strategies for a plan moving forward. Muller-Shinn’s goals include prevention strategies, including expanding substance-use disorder prevention in schools and decreasing the opioid supply and a change in opioid prescribing practices. The second goal is to increase access to treatment and increase behavioral health services within the criminal justice system. The third goal is to reduce death with overdose prevention and naloxone distribution. The fourth goal is data use and collecting data around substance use.

For more information on the board of health topics, go to http://www.tinyurl.com/rezjtz7j.