Under the guidance of the Health Officer, the assessment program collects, analyzes, and distributes data about health and disease trends and issues in Snohomish County. In addition, the program has an active and increasing role during responses to communicable disease and foodborne illness outbreaks in the county. The Epidemiologist II also provides 24/7 on-call support with one-week rotations with Prevention Services management and Public Health Nurses. Working collaboratively with community partners, the program completes comprehensive reports like the Community Health Assessment and Community Health Improvement Plan. The program also provides fee-based epidemiological services to community partners in the region.
Currently, the program is staffed with three 1.0 FTE Epidemiologist II and two temporary COVID 1.0 FTE Epidemiologist I that report to the Prevention Services Assistant Director. The District received a reclassification questionnaire from one of the Epidemiologist II employees who has been with the District for over 18 years and has been the District’s only communicable disease Epidemiologist for many of those years.
Over the last few years, the assessment team has been supervised by a wide range of individuals, some with an epidemiology background but most without. The current Assistant Director does not have a background in epidemiology nor would it be likely that their successor would possess one either. Because the Assistant Director lacks epidemiology expertise, Ms. Bruce has been functioning in a lead role for the past year. The District would like to formalize this role and create the Lead Epidemiologist classification to assist the Assistant Director with the high-level technical work that needs to be completed and help lead the program.
Currently the Epidemiologist II is budgeted at (Range 20, Step 7) $127,264.80, including benefits. If reclassification is approved, the new budgeted amount would be (Range 21, Step 7) $133,629.60. The retroactive pay (from February 1, 2020) would cost approximately $13,000 which includes over 1,400 hours of overtime.