Wisconsin State Health Plan

Overview

The Department of Health Services (DHS) is required by state statue, Wis. Stat. § 250.07(1)(a), to produce a state health plan for the people of Wisconsin at least every 10 years. These plans, developed with the help of partners and communities from around the state, have served as a public health roadmap for the last three decades.

In pursuit of accreditation, and increased impact and effectiveness, the state health plan is now on a new cycle. It builds on the foundation of our past state health plan, Healthiest Wisconsin 2020. The state health plan is a continuous process with a new state health assessment and health improvement plan once every five years:

  • The Wisconsin Health Assessment provides an overview of the health of the people of Wisconsin and summarizes the data that guides the selection of the priorities for the state health improvement plan.
  • The Wisconsin Health Improvement Plan focuses on these priorities and works to create and support solutions for better health, with strategies and measures, for collective action by public health partners across Wisconsin.

Our goal is to continue to build upon the community efforts of Healthiest Wisconsin 2020 to improve health in every Wisconsin community.

View answers to frequently asked questions about the plan on our Resources webpage.

State Health Assessment (SHA)

The SHA Report

The SHA report, Painting the Picture of Wisconsin's Health, P-03169, is grounded in input from thousands of community members in 74 community conversations across the state and the work of many partners and community organizations.

The goal of the 2020-2025 SHA is to Paint the Picture of Wisconsin’s Health. The SHA process followed the Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) framework to assess the health conditions, determinants of health and community assets in our state and to collect information across the state about barriers and opportunities for community health improvement. The SHA report is grounded in input from thousands of community members in 74 community conversations across the state and the work of many partners and community organizations.

The MAPP framework incorporated four assessments:

  • Community Health Status Assessment which provides quantitative information on community health conditions, and consists of primary and secondary data.
  • Community Themes and Assets Assessment which focuses on qualitative information about issues that are important to the community members and assets available in the community.
  • Public Health System Assessment which measures how partners work together, and includes public health systems and non-health sector partners.
  • Forces of Change Assessment which identifies external forces that affect communities as well as opportunities and threats associated with those forces.

Collaborative Prioritization: 2023-2027 SHIP

Informed by the State Health Assessment, the SHIP prioritization process identifies priority areas and strategies for population health improvement, measures and indicators to track progress, as well as what partnerships will be necessary to implement the full plan. The resulting 2023-2027 SHIP represents a roadmap to community health improvement statewide, a public health agenda and the main policy document for the public health system in Wisconsin. The anticipated release date for the 2023-2027 SHIP is fall 2022.

This process is rooted in lifting community voices in the decision-making process and engages partners from many sectors and all parts of the state.

For more information about the Wisconsin State Health Plan email: DHSHW2020@dhs.wisconsin.gov

Related information and reports

Last Revised: December 7, 2022