Peer Reviews Build Capacity for County Inspection Effectiveness

Darryl Booth, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Environmental Health, Accela
dbooth@accela.com

All administrative industries struggle with the human factor—the individual interpretations of law and rules when carrying out inspections and enforcement. Research has identified such biases across both the public and private sectors from the distribution of Medicaid and Medicare to the classroom and rental housing inspections (https://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2010-01-17/inconsistent-inspectio...).

Environmental health is no exception. We strive for perfection and consistency, we train and receive advanced degrees and continuing education, and we go out into the field with the best of intentions, but the human factor is always present.

Seattle & King County Environmental Health knew that there was growing interest in making restaurant data easily available for consumers to inform their dining choices. But when food program leadership began researching placarding and scoring methods, they found a degree of variation in the data underlying existing procedures that they couldn't ignore. ...

Read the Building Capacity Column in Full

PEER REVIEWS BUILD CAPACITY FOR COUNTY INSPECTION EFFECTIVENESS (PDF)

Journal of Environmental Health
June 2016
Volume 78, Number 10