What do health education classes, a telephone nurse service and a free health clinic have in common? They are just a few of the many services funded by the community’s levy dollars – programs designed to meet the diverse needs of the growing and changing area that Evergreen serve.
Some services are funded entirely by levy money, others are enhanced with levy money. You won’t find most of these programs offered by other health care organizations; Evergreen is able to provide them because of the support received from the community.
“Evergreen's levy funding commitment for community health services is another example of our Board of Commissioner's commitment to serving the health care needs of residents in the Evergreen district,” explains Evergreen CEO Steve Brown. “Our Board believes community health services are a good investment because they help to improve the overall health of the community.”
How Levy Funds are Allocated
Each program or service that requests levy funding must annually demonstrate the community need it addresses and detail program objectives, implementation plans and projected outcomes. Proposals are evaluated based on the need, whether existing agencies could meet this need and whether the overall benefit to the community justifies the resources. Evergreen’s publicly-elected Board of Commissioners has the final say on distribution of levy funds each year, based on the recommendations of a standing levy committee.
While some levy-supported programs specifically address the special needs of the under-served, the chronically ill, the disabled and high-risk populations, the majority of the programs are for use by the entire community. For instance, if you are one of the 210,000 callers who received help from the Evergreen Healthline last year, or one of the 19,000 participants in our health education classes, you have benefited directly from levy-supported services.
Other levy-supported services include a variety of programs for the community’s seniors and specialty programs such as Evergreen Hospice, Diabetes Education and the Booth Gardner Parkinson’s Care Center.
In addition to community health services, a portion of the levy funds is used to pay for buildings, equipment and clinical services at Evergreen Hospital Medical Center and the Evergreen Medical Group primary care sites to ensure the community has access to and receives the highest-quality health care in the region.
For more information on Evergreen’s levy-funded services, please call 425.899.3251.