PARAGON: Online Food Safety Inspection System

Environmental Health Web-Based Inspection System - Project in Brief

This NACCHO project is made possible through a partnership with Paragon Bermuda (Canada) Ltd., a technical services firm that provides Web-based application design, development, testing, and implementation for a variety of environmental health programs, including food safety, swimming pools, and septic tanks. For more information about Paragon Bermuda, visit http://74.220.207.152/~inspect8/.

Background

NACCHO has worked to improve understanding and awareness of the needs within local food safety programs. One of the largest gaps is the absence of electronic, streamlined, and cost-effective management of inspections, inspection reports, and results. To address this need at the local level, NACCHO embarked upon a collaboration with Paragon.

The Paragon Online Inspection System started as a Food Safety Inspection program and evolved to support multiple programs, including food establishments, swimming pools, and septic tanks.

Purpose

This project markets and promotes a Web-accessible system for local health departments that has the following attributes:

• Uses input screens identical to the paper forms used by inspectors;
• Allows the use of a wide variety of equipment (desktop, laptop, tablet, etc.) to interface with the application;
• Provides consistent, accurate, and up-to-date information to the public via the Internet;
• Is available as a secure, hosted service;
• Is cost effective for small to mid-sized health departments;
• Saves signatures as encrypted "electronic ink"; and
• Includes all the functionality required by the Inspection Business Process, specifically:
• • Secure access by authorized personnel;
  • Automatic scheduling of inspections based on risk category;
  • Scheduling of ad hoc inspections;        
  • Re-inspection and complaint tracking;
  • Repeat and violation calculation;        
  • Optional scoring;       
  • Issuance and tracking of notice documents;
  • Reassignment of inspections or establishments by managers;
  • Management reporting;
  • User registration by authorized personnel; and
  • Extensive customization, including:
  • • Use of individual food code and violations;
    • Editing the violations library; and       
    • Values in all picklists used.

Major Activities

June 2005: Held focus group to solicit feedback on the functionality of the application and the kind of reporting that various levels of government might need.

July 2005: Presented the application at the NACCHO/ASTHO Annual Conference in Boston

December 2005: Initiated marketing and promotion of the system to local health departments.