DSHS – Legislative Budget Board and Office of the Governor

DSHS is organized in six programmatic areas covering Laboratory and Infectious Disease Services, Regional and Local Health Operations, Consumer Protection, Community Health Improvement, the Office of Chief State Epidemiologist, and the Center for Public Health Policy and Practice that fulfill our mission by: preventing, detecting, and responding to infectious diseases, leading public health and medical response during disasters and emergencies, developing and implementing evidence-based public health interventions through data analysis and science, reducing health risks and threats by establishing minimum standards for consumer protection, and • promoting healthy living through disease and injury prevention. Two years of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic tested the strength and endurance of the entire public health system, taking a toll on the state’s health infrastructure, resources, and personnel. It must be noted that successfully weathering the pandemic wa