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Jefferson County Public Health – Planned Performance Measures 2012
(Food Safety Program)
PROGRAM:Food Safety Program
MISSION Statement:The mission of the Food Safety Program is to minimize the risk of the spread of
disease from improperly prepared, stored or served foods handled in commercial retail settings and
community events.
Plan/GOALS FOR FY 2012:
1. Train all food service workers on the food safety.
2. Ensure compliance with the food code.
3. Reduce the incidents of food borne illness in our community.
4. Educate food safety workers, food establishment owners, and the public on food safety.
5. Ensure septic systems serving food establishments are operational.
OBJECTIVES FOR FY 2012:
1. Offer food safety training at a frequency and in locations convenient to food service workers.
2. Continue to offer online food safety training.
3. Maintain a list of contacts which may assist food operators such as: building inspectors, WSDA, Fire
Marshall, DOH, Labor and Industries, Alcohol and tobacco, and zoning.
4. Inspect all food service establishments at a frequency adequate to assure compliance with state and
local regulatory requirements.
5. Offer educational materials and technical assistance to non-regulated community groups and
organizations where requested.
6. Provide educational materials “on the spot” as needed. (task)
7. Update food establishments on new and amended regulations and department changes through the
website, phone calls, informational meetings, and mailings.
8. Assist and Educate food establishments in reducing critical violations and eliminating repeat
violations.
9. Require food establishments to have annual Operations and Maintenance inspections of their septic
system. (task)
10. Prevent septic system failures at food establishments by assisting with enforcement of operations and
monitoring requirements.
PERFORMANCE INDICATORS/activities: 2010
Actual
2011
Planned
(as of
8/15/2011)
2012
Planned
Number of food workers trained (Health Inspector) 1269 641
Number of instructor led classes 92 40
Number of food workers trained on line 0 223
Number of food worker classes at Health Department, special
here*
Number of food worker classes at other locations, Tri-Area,
special*
Number of food worker classes normally scheduled*
Number of food worker classes scheduled per need*
Number of food establishment permits* 235 241
Number of food establishment permits – complex menu 111
Number of food establishment permits – non-complex menu 130
Number of required routine inspections completed, routine, pre-
open, re-inspections *
Number of required routine inspections completed. 249 219
Number of pre-opening inspections completed 32
Number of re-inspections completed. 6 2
Number of inspected establishments that required repeat
inspections due to critical violations.
Percent of required inspections completed 91
Number of press releases, meetings, mailing and e-mails (or
separate these?, Julia)
Meetings 5
Number of establishments receiving Outstanding Achievement
Awards* this may need to be removed? 38 40
Number of temporary food service permits 82 106
Number of Plan Reviews that opened 30
SUMMARY OF KEY FUNDING/SERVICE ISSUES:
Food Safety Program activities are funded solely through permit and technical assistance fees. We will utilize
the hourly technical assistance fee more consistently to recoup costs.
STUDY/ANALYSIS:
Staffing changes included Dana moving in to water quality and Mina starting in October 2010. Susan and
Alison each picked up a role in the food program.
Food Worker card numbers remained high, most likely due to the state requiring food worker cards for
employees of “donated food organizations”, and possibly an increase in the number of those facilities.
Percent of required inspections completed was at 85%, which is consistent with the previous two years. A
plan is now in place that should ensure 100% completion in 2011. In summary, Susan Porto has taken over
as Lead of the Food Program, and Alison Petty will be assisting with plans review and temporary events. In
addition, we will be contracting with the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department to bring online food
worker training to Jefferson County. These changes will allow Mina to focus on field inspections.
Plan review was added to the table to address the significant amount of staff time spent on this task. Our
front desk staff person is now able to provide application information for prospective business operators
which will allow Mina to focus on inspections.
Numerous activities took place during 2010 including preparations for new permit renewal requirements
including annual operations and maintenance inspections for food service establishments served by septic
systems, and payment of fees. A new fee structure was created that is more specific and descriptive.
Revising and drawing up new policies and procedures began in 2010. An email list of establishments was
created and used for notification of changes and newsletter mailings occurred twice in conjunction with
tobacco enforcement news. 40 food establishments and licensed facilities that demonstrated the highest
standards for safe food handling were presented with the 2010 Outstanding Achievement Awards.
SUMMARY OF KEY FUNDING / SERVICE ISSUES as part of Plan for 2012:
Improve relations with owners of food establishments to ensure compliance with codes associated with
the food program to ensure consistent enforcement. The program history has been a gradual reduction
in adequate level of compliance.
Implement on-line food worker card classes to allow alternate to the instructor-led classes and free
instructor to be able to redirect time for other aspects of the food service program.
Performance measures was a difficult assessment due to changes in staff , re-organization to comply
with requirement of code with focus on consistent enforcement of the requirements, and more fairly
reconcile program goals.
Database concerns:
ACCESS – There are no Information Technology (IT) staff knowledgeable in this software thus
making it very difficult for members of the Food Program and the administrative staff to generate
report from this software.
An Information Technology staff highly experienced with Access soft ware is urgently required.
KIPHS – This software has numerous short comings and updates by program generators have still not
solved all the problems associated with the soft ware. Administrative staff and program team members
have to regularly phone KIPHS staff for assistance with problems.
Math and hand counting has to be used to obtain some information from both databases.
Temporary Food Service:
Problems related to fees, category of temporary events and general application procedure is an ongoing
problem with the food program.
Great progress made on (a) adjustment of Guidelines/Policies (b) Application forms (c) Check list for
the temporary food service.
Other Adjustments in the food program:
Newly adapted guidelines/policies prepared by Alison Petty and presented to the Board of
Health for approval.
Existing forms cleaned up and made user friendly
Websites used more frequently and updated as joint project between the food program and the
webmaster (Donna Marvin)
(I haven’t heard of any list of County Goals and strategies for 2012 yet. Below is the list from last year)
LINKS TO COUNTY GOALS AND STRATEGIES:
Justice and Safety
Health and Quality of Life
Economic Prosperity and Built Environment
Service Excellence
Financial Stewardship
Public Engagement
Quality Workforce
August 31, 2011