The Naugatuck Valley Health District wants to make it easier for the public to find out how restaurants have fared on health inspections.
But info for schools and nursing homes won’t be included in the new system being considered.
The NVHD — which serves Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Derby, Naugatuck, Seymour and Shelton — plans to identify restaurants as either “Excellent” “Good,” “Fair,” or “Poor” depending on their health inspection violations.
In addition the grades would have forks standing in for stars — as in, a restaurant with four “forks” means it received an “excellent” rating on its last inspection.
It’s a much more intuitive rating system than the one currently in place.
Establishments would also be required to post the ratings for the public to see — that is, except schools, nursing homes and “long-term care facilities.”
Anything run by the government or non-profit agencies would be exempt from the new ratings, according to a draft copy of the new rules posted on the NVHD website.
Huh? Why are places that serve food to kids and senior citizens protected from public scrutiny?
David Rogers, the assistant director for environmental health at the NVHD, said those facilities will still be inspected, and those inspections will still be available to the public upon request.
In fact, the same checklist inspection report will be used for those, and all, facilities, as well as the same scoring system.
The change is the addition of the “excellent” to “poor” language on most inspections, along with the public posting, Rogers said.
If you want to know how your child’s school measures up, you will have to find out the old way – by visiting the health district office and reading the full report.
Rogers said the health district had two reasons for leaving out schools, nursing homes and non-profits that serve food:
- Members of the public don’t walk in and eat at those facilities.
- And the facilities typically score in the “Excellent” range.
“We very rarely have a problem with those” places, Rogers said. “They are all staffed with professional people who have extensive training. They are all on top of their game.”
However, it should be noted that Griffin Hospital scored a 88 on Feb. 15, 2013, according to the NVHD.
In addition, two news outlets — first the Connecticut Health Investigative Team and then the Connecticut Post — have done stories raising questions about cleanliness within school cafeterias. But local schools fared well in both stories.
Whether restaurant owners will complain about having to post their ratings while non-profit and government-run entities do not remains to be seen. Rogers said all affected establishments have been notified, and the health district has not received any feedback yet.
A public hearing on the changes is scheduled for Tuesday, April 9 at 6:45 p.m. in the health department office at 98 Bank St. in Seymour.
Why Change?
The proposed rating system is more sensible than the current rating system,which seems to have been birthed from bureaucracy.
Right now, a number score is assigned. A 100 is the highest possible rating. Anything below 80 is failing — although inspectors don’t technically call it failing, only that “re-inspection needed.”
But, a food establishment can receive a single, critical violation — and fail. So, a restaurant with a 96 rating sounds great — but may have failed.
The Valley Indy has been printing local food service inspection reports since 2009 — but the scores simply do not tell the full story.
“I looked at 50 or so inspections,” said David Rogers, the assistant director for Environmental Health at NVHD. “And I had people who were “Poor” but had a numerical score of 91.”
Adding to the info problem — if a member of the public wants to see the details of the inspections beyond a number, he or she has to go to the health district’s office in Seymour to view them. That policy has drawn criticism from Valley residents who post on the Valley Indy’s Facebook page.
With roughly 100 to 120 inspections each month, the task was beyond the ability of most members of the press or public.
The rather archaic practice also differs from some other health departments, such as in Danbury, where City Hall used to post complete summary reports on the city’s website.
Same Inspections, New Names
The new information being added to the inspections will help describe the results to the public, Rogers said.
“Nothing has changed in the inspection process,” Rogers said. “It’s going to be the same inspection that they’ve always had. When the sanitarian is through, they will look at the items and assign the rating based on which items were missed.”
The inspections will continue to note certain violations.
Major violations, such as sub-par hand washing facilities or food temperature control, knock down a score by four points. These are called “critical violations.”
If a restaurant has even one critical violation, it will be considered “Poor.”
Other problems — such as rodents present or unclean food preparation surfaces — are considered “risk factors.”
While risk factors don’t bring a score down as much as the critical violations, they play a major role in the proposed rating system.
If a restaurant has three to four risk factors identified — regardless of the final score — it will be considered “Fair.”
And if a restaurant has more than five risk factors — regardless of score — it will be ranked as “Poor.”
“What we tried to do was create a system that would make it easier for lay people to understand,” Rogers said.
More Transparency
While getting the full reports for health inspections is a tedious process for the average citizen, Rogers said the health district has been trying to get more information out to the public.
After the Valley Indy started requesting monthly inspection reports from the district in 2009, the NVHD began posting the scores on its own website as well.
The ratings proposal is another step toward better informing residents about how restaurants are performing. Under the proposal, all restaurants that serve hot food will be required to post the most recent rating in a visible place. Those ratings will be placed online as well, Rogers said.
The full proposal can be viewed at the Naugatuck Valley Health District website.
