It is the intent of the Bear River Health Department (BRHD) to come into full compliance with Standard 3 by the end of the term of this cooperative agreement. The current practice is to inspect each establishment twice a year regardless of facility type. It is believed that the most time consuming aspect of meeting Standard 3 will be to switch from this practice to doing inspections based on the inherent risk of each establishment. The risk of each establishment will need to be determined by looking at their inspection history which will require accurate data. Switching to a risk based inspection program will require a strengthening of the infrastructure of the program. Currently, our inspectors spend roughly a third of their time with billing, filing, mailing, acting as the receptionist, and doing sundry other basic office duties. This project calls for additional office help to be hired to free up the inspectors to concentrate on their food establishments. In addition, a data management company will need to be hired. With inspection data organized, BRHD will be able to determine risk levels appropriate for each food establishment. There will also be intended consequences of strengthening the infrastructure of the food safety program to meet Standard 3. Inspections will become uniform in quality and accuracy. The implementation of a data management system will make reviewing past inspections easier and, thus, more common. Add this to a solid template that every inspector uses, and peer reviews of each inspection, each inspection done will become clear, legible, concise, and accurate. This will help to meet Standard 4. Accurate data management will allow for a current listing of email contacts for each retail food establishment to be created. Information on current issues will then be regularly disseminated. Organized complaints may also be reviewed to find any patterns of foodborne illnesses. These items will help to meet Standard 5. It will be crucial to have equipment capable of fully utilizing a system for the capturing and organizing of inspection data. Outdated computer and field equipment will need to be replaced. Standard 8 requires that equipment be supplied to meet the other standards. By extension, BRHD will be meeting Standard 8 as the other standards are met.
This cooperative agreement will enable the Bear River Health Department (BRHD) to more efficiently use its resources by focusing on high risk food establishments when doing inspections. This will require a strengthening of the food safety program's infrastructure. As a consequence, this strengthening will cause all inspections to become uniform in quality and accuracy, enable BRHD to quickly get information out to food establishments in case of an emergency, and track foodborne illness complaint patterns.
