Strengthening Foodborne Illness Surveillance and Response Capabilities in Harris County Using an Innovative System-Based Approach

项目摘要/摘要 位于哈里斯县公共卫生部门的环境公共卫生部门是 负责监管约9,000家食肆，管理18,000多家 2019年进行检查，为德克萨斯州哈里斯县的230万人提供服务。分部 持续努力保持健全的食品安全计划，并实施创新 减少食源性疾病的解决方案。 作为目前得到资助的环境健康专家网络的合作伙伴，如果为 新周期我们打算使用赠款资金继续努力减少食源性疾病 哈里斯县，德克萨斯州和美国。我们的长期目标是减少食源性疾病和 加强在哈里斯县、德克萨斯州和美国的监控和反应能力。这个 根据我们的长期目标，总体目标是使用基于系统的方法来 加强我们食源性疾病和暴发的多个相互关联的领域 计划同时确保最大限度地从食源性食品的增加中受益 疾病投诉。 具体目标是：1)评估影响食源性疾病报告的障碍 德克萨斯州哈里斯县；2)实施和评估旨在增加 并改进报告机制；3)创建一个新的程序，用于所有食源性 疾病投诉和暴发调查，重点是食源性疾病风险因素 在受影响的食肆进行控制教育；及4)实施新的抽样策略 在调查食源性疾病时，重点放在环境和食品样本上。在……里面 此外，哈里斯县公共卫生仍然致力于协助所有多点研究 由EHS-Net协力承担。 本提案中基于系统的方法意义重大，因为它试图改进 影响食源性疾病检测、反应和预防一体化的多个系统 有凝聚力的项目。虽然系统论在食品安全领域并不新鲜，但我们相信 有可能添加到当前的文献中，并举例说明系统理论是如何 方法有助于概念化如何从整体上加强食品安全计划 全国卫生部门。

Project Summary/Abstract The Environmental Public Health Division residing within Harris County Public Health, is responsible for regulating approximately 9,000 food establishments, conducting over 18,000 inspections in 2019, and serving 2.3 million people in Harris County, Texas. The division continuously strives to maintain a robust food safety program and implement innovative solutions to reduce foodborne illness. As a currently funded partner of the Environmental Health Specialists Network, if funded for a new cycle we intend to use grant funds to continue efforts toward reducing foodborne illness in Harris County, Texas and the US. Our long-term goal is to reduce foodborne illness and strengthen surveillance and response capabilities in Harris County, Texas and the US. The overall objective pursuant to our long-term goal, is the use of a systems-based approach to enhancement of the multiple interconnected areas of our foodborne illness and outbreak program concurrently ensuring that it will maximally benefit from an increase in foodborne illness complaints. The specific aims are: 1) Evaluate the barriers that interfere with foodborne illness reporting in Harris County, Texas; 2) Implement and evaluate a new media campaign designed to increase and improve reporting mechanisms; 3) Create a new procedure to utilize for all foodborne illness complaints and outbreak investigations with an emphasis on foodborne illness risk factor control education in implicated food establishments; and 4) Implement a new sampling strategy that focuses on environmental and food samples when investigating foodborne illness. In addition, Harris County Public Health remains committed to assisting with all multi-site studies undertaken by the EHS-Net collaborative. The systems-based approach in this proposal is significant because it attempts to improve upon multiple systems that affect foodborne illness detection, response, and prevention in one cohesive project. While systems theory is not new to the field of food safety, we believe there is potential to add to the current literature and examples demonstrating how a systems theory approach can be helpful in conceptualizing how to enhance food safety programs holistically for health departments nationwide.