Implementation of a Pilot Program to Address Reliability of Environmental Sanitation Inspections at Memphis and Shelby C

1. Memphis and Shelby County Health Department (MSCHD) is a joint funded agency of County and City governments. Shelby County contains seven incorporated municipalities (e.g., Memphis, Arlington, Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown, Lakeland, and Millington) and several unincorporated areas. Shelby County is also the largest county in the State of Tennessee, both geographically (approximately 783 square miles) and in population (909,035). With over 5,000 food establishments throughout Memphis and Shelby County, MSCHD is required by both Tennessee Department of Health and Tennessee Department of Agriculture annotated law to inspect facilities twice per year, and more often if critical sanitation violations have been cited or if there are food-borne outbreaks or food-borne complaint investigations. Implementation of a Pilot Program to Address Reliability of Environmental Sanitation Inspections at Memphis and Shelby County Health Department Tyler Zerwekh, DrPH Memphis and Shelby County Health Department Environmental Health Bureau LOGO LOGO MATERIALS AND METHODS RESULTS BACKGROUND Program Goal To implement an environmental sanitation inspection pilot program to address reliability, validity, and repeatability results for a comprehensive environmental sanitation program. Health Problem More than 54 billion meals are served at 844,000 commercial food establishments in the United States each year and nearly half of all money spent on food is done so at food establishments. On a typical day, 44% of adults in the United States eat at a restaurant. Approximately 40% of food-borne disease outbreaks reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are attributed to commercial food establishments. Preventing restaurant-associated food-borne disease outbreaks is an important task of public health departments. Many times, sanitation inspections performed by public health departments at these food establishments are not efficient or reliable when performed due to myriad reasons including, but not limited to, inspector training level, workload, and type of facility inspected. Outcome Objective The Memphis and Shelby County Health Department Environmental Sanitation program aimed to work with program managers, lead environmentalists, and environmentalist to implement and execute a quality assurance pilot project that would increase the repeatability and accuracy of environmental sanitation inspection scores at sanitation facilities. Determinant Tennessee Department of Health program audit determined a difference in 35 points (5 violations, 1 critical violation) on average of facilities audited after a MSCHD Environmentalist inspection METHODOLOGY: Event: Quality Assurance Pilot Program Planning Activities: Meeting with Environmental Health Administrator and MSCHD Director of Health to present ideas for increasing repeatability and accuracy of sanitation inspections (June 2008) Meeting with MSCHD Environmental Sanitation program managers to unveil quality assurance pilot program sanitation inspection audit process and enlist support for the program (August 2008) Develop a timeline for integration, implementation, and execution of the pilot program (August 2008) Event: Workforce Development and Enhancements – Addressing personnel issues and the increase in expertise through workforce development and technology Activities: Assess TDH audit criteria into pilot program training to ensure standardization (August 2008) Conduct trainings for Lead Environmentalists to standardize audit inspections (September 2008) Conduct trainings/re-trainings for Environmentalist to standardize sanitation inspections (September 2008) Reassign inspection “zones” to minimize inspection bias and confounding Event: Pilot Program Implementation Activities: Environmentalists’ inspection of facilities Lead Environmentalists’ audit inspections of random facilities. Education to operators selected for audit inspections of pilot program Environmental Sanitation program manager analysis of audit inspections • With over 5,000 food establishments throughout Memphis and Shelby County, MSCHD is required by both Tennessee Department of Health and Tennessee Department of Agriculture annotated law to inspect facilities twice per year, and more often if critical sanitation violations have been cited or if there are food-borne outbreaks or food-borne complaint investigations. • The association between environmental sanitation inspections and food-borne outbreaks in communities has been documented extensively. With only seventeen environmentalists trained at MSCHD to perform sanitation inspections on the 5,000+ facilities, it is not uncommon for an environmentalist at MSCHD to perform over 700 inspections and follow-ups in one calendar year. The sheer amount of inspections by environmentalists’ can lead to practices that ultimately compromise the integrity of an individual inspection to satisfy the overall arching goal of total inspection completion. • During a recent audit investigation by the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) on the MSCHD Environmental Sanitation division, it was documented that unannounced inspections by TDH immediately after a MSCHD inspection yielded an average difference score of 35 points with a range of one to five critical violations not documented by MSCHD environmentalists but observed and documented by TDH audit staff. • A total of 36 facilities were audited for 16 Environmentalists by 3 Lead Environmentalists during the month of December 2008. • Results demonstrated an average of 6.11 points lower score when the Lead Environmentalist performed an audit inspection after the environmentalist. • The range of difference in sanitation inspection was from 20 points lower to 9 points higher than the Environmentalist when the Lead Environmentalist performed the audit inspection immediately after the initial PURPOSE AND HYPOTHESIS CHART or PICTURE • The significance of these findings listed in the Background has immediate environmental public health ramifications on Shelby County, TN, and its stakeholders. Inaccurate and underscored inspections increase the likelihood for a facility to continue practices and controls deemed unsanitary and unsafe. This can lead to an increased risk in unsafe food and food handlers, which ultimately leads to a higher probability of food-borne and infectious disease transmission to facility patrons. This project will focus on the development and implementation of a sanitation pilot program that aims to increase the accuracy and reliability of environmental sanitation inspections within the MSCHD Environmental Sanitation Section. • Problem Statement: Implementation of an environmental sanitation inspection pilot program to address reliability, validity, and repeatability results for a comprehensive environmental sanitation program, which will provide accurate and representative sanitation scores of operator facilities to Shelby County stakeholders. CONCLUSIONS The results demonstrate the pilot program was unsuccessful upon initial examination. However, it is worth noting that 20% (7 / 36) of the facilities audited did observe the environmentalist scoring the facility lower than the audit procedure done by the Lead Environmentalist after the initial inspection. These results extrapolated demonstrate there was value in implementation of the program, whether it was due to fear/concern the environmentalist would be exposed for poor inspection methodology or because there was an actual observed improvement in the sanitation inspection procedure. While the results were not favorable, it is worth noting this was the initial audit follow-up analysis for this pilot program and hopefully future audits will demonstrate more frequent and improved reliability and repeatability in environmentalists’ scores and Lead Environmentalists audits. Future steps and next directions include: 1) continued audit inspections to further underscore the importance of proper sanitation inspections, 2) refresher and additional trainings for environmentalists who continue score inspections higher than audit follow-ups, and 3) disciplinary action for environmentalists who continue to underscore sanitation inspections. BIBLIOGRAPHY CHART or PICTURE CHART or PICTURE For more information, contact: Tyler Zerwekh, DrPH Memphis and Shelby County Health department 814 Jefferson Ave., 502H Memphis, TN 38105 Email: Tyler.Zerwekh@shelbycountytn.gov