Tracy Eveland and the Sandhills District Health Department

By: Kylee 

Tracy Eveland is a registered nurse in the Sandhills District Health Department. She is the Vaccine Coordinator giving all the vaccines for children and adults. She assists the director and helps in the medical clinic and the nurse practitioner. She also serves as the nurse for the Keith County Jail.  Mrs. Eveland is also the Emergency Response Coordinator for the five counties that SDHD serves. As the Emergency Response Coordinator, she is responsible in coordinating all the medicines and supplies needed to treat everybody in the counties who would be affected by the specific type of emergency.

Mrs. Eveland is originally from Grand Island, and after meeting her husband, they lived in Hastings where they raised their four boys. They moved to Ogallala because her husband wanted to move closer to his folks. She says she likes life in a small community because everyone knows her and her kids and “it’s more of a community project to raise my family.”

SDHD is one of twenty-one health departments across the state of Nebraska that monitor public health by tracking diseases, seeing who is sick, gathering statistics, interviewing, and then providing the vaccine. They also provide and distribute home radon kits and educate the public on health issues.

SDHD has been in our community for over thirty years. In its earlier stage, it was known as the Nebraska Visiting Nurses Association much like Home Health visits are today. And as it moved forward in developing public health, it became the Sandhills District Health Department. SDHD is a very important service in our community because it provides medical care, immunizations, preventions, and screenings. It serves the very young and old with or without insurance. They monitor health data and statistics, educate the community, and provide treatment. Also they provide CPR classes and the Sandhills Safe Kids program in educating child passenger safety. If it impacts your health as a person or community; usually there’s a health department initiative behind it to help educate, diagnose or treat, or to do research and statistics.