OCCHD Consumer Protection Advancing Conformance with VNRFRPS through Electronic Inspections

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Project Summary/Abstract As one of the first health departments to obtain national accreditation, the Oklahoma City-County Health Department (OCCHD) supports a robust presence in the community through innovation and partnerships on the local, state and national level. In 2014, OCCHD was awarded $20,000 of funding from the Food and Drug Administration to initiate an electronic inspection program. Successes from the initial grant awarded includes: purchasing 21 Apple iPads, keyboards, and care plans. This grant also covered the consultant fees with MyHealth/Verinovum to assist in contracting with the inspection software developers. Our latest self-assessment provided a full analysis of strengths and weaknesses with meeting established standards and protocols in a program with nearly 5,150 retail food establishments requiring at least 8,574 yearly inspections. OCCHD identified discrepancies with meeting several of the FDA Voluntary National Food Regulatory Program Standards (VNRFRPS), including Standards 4 and 6. In efforts to address this shortfall, the Oklahoma City-County Health Department (OCCHD) Consumer Protection Division established plans to convert to an electronic inspection program. The OCCHD and its Board of Health are committed to this project and has allocated resources for the development of our retail food electronic inspection program. The long term goal is to fully implement electronic inspections that will ensure real-time reporting, provide electronic follow-up and enforcement inspection notification reminders, and allow easy reference code citations during inspections. The objective of this grant is to use the $70,000 for each of the next 3 years to support the remaining phases for full implementation of the electronic inspection program. The specific aims will develop the framework for OCCHD to meet standards 4 and 6 of the VNRFRPS and strengthen pre-existing protocols meeting the current standards. (Aim 1). OCCHD Consumer Protection Division intends to meet the VNRFRPS Standard 4 requirements by fully implementing an electronic inspection program to address past deficiencies in the Consumer Protection quality assurance program. (Aim 2). The adoption of the electronic inspection program will allow OCCHD Consumer Protection Division to meet the VNRFRPS Standard 6 requirements by fully implementing an electronic inspection program to demonstrate that credible follow up actions were taken. The electronic inspection program will greatly assist regulatory staff in routine monitoring and achieving compliance from regulated entities with the applicable regulations. As a PHAB accredited Health Department, OCCHD must (Aim 3) Meet standards to maintain agency accreditation with the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB). (Aim 4) Finally, the electronic inspection programs will strengthen our adherence to Standard 7 by providing inspection results to the public in a data dashboard format.