QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PLAN

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QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PLAN

• County Environmental Health
• On-site Wastewater Program

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Why do quality control?

• Insure that we are providing the public the
  highest quality of service
• Insure our continued compliance with the laws and
  rules that the we are obligated to enforce (15A
  NCAC 18A .1900)
• Professional growth and development of your
  workforce, manpower issues
• Insure program consistency and assess individual
  program strengths and weaknesses

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QIP Objectives

• The primary objective of a quality improvement
  program is to observe and critique the following
• Quality and consistency of work performed in the
  field
• Individual program knowledge and application of
  laws and rules
• Documentation (field work, permits, drawings,
  etc.)

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Quality of work

• Work Quality evaluations seek to know how well
  you do the job by assessing the following
• Regulatory compliance
• Thoroughness
• Consistency
• Completeness
• Accuracy

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Knowledge of the job

• Knowledge and application of the regulations
• Fairness and consistency when applying the
  regulations
• Knowledge of the general duties of an EHS

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Documentation

• Field work (soil and site evaluations,
  inspections, field notes, etc.)
• Paperwork (permits, drawings, letters, inspection
  sheets, pictures, etc.)
• Ask the question Is the work you produce
  understandable (to clients, establishment owners,
  contractors, the public)?

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Some simple approaches to QI

• Review field work
• Go out with staff, observe lot evaluations,
  system inspections, establishment inspections,
  or review issued permits in the field set goals
• Example OSWW goal for FY 07-08 is to review at
  least 50 site evaluations and inspections this
  year
• FLI supervisor conducts 50 joint inspections with
  staff per year.
• Document your findings in a consistent and
  repeatable way
• We use a created form that is assigned point
  values for activities observed

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Some simple approaches to QI

• Review paperwork
• Review all or at least a percentage of paperwork
  and permits for completeness and accuracy
• Example We review and correct as needed, all
  permits prior to issuing to clients.
• A daily percentage of establishment inspections
  are reviewed for proper notation of violations,
  interpretation of rules, and consistency of
  documentation across inspection periods.
• Note Many fundamental mistakes such as omitted,
  inaccurate, or inadequate documentation, can be
  caught and addressed at this point without undue
  hardship on the staff or public

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Productivity

• Statistics
• Not graded this quarter / 6 mo / yr reports.
• Establishment assignment leveling each quarter (
  p.r.n. )
• Spreadsheets or other method for allotting time
  for all inspections in each period
• Periodic describe your day requests to staff
• Hockey sticks

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Productivity
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The so-called  "Hockey Stick" pattern -- a
pattern based on a 1000-year long reconstruction
of mean annual Northern Hemisphere temperatures
--   can be seen (in various forms.
It's called the "Hockey Stick" pattern because
the upturn at the end of the period gives it a
shape like a hockey stick lying on its side
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Productivity
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Automation

• Food and Lodging module provides all forms, and
  validates inspections before finalizing sessions.
  
• No missing information, ID numbers
• No mathematical errors in scoring
• No discrepancies between field inspections and
  info sent to HSIS
• No indiscernable comments from poor handwriting.
• Canned comments customizable for each user.

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Automation

• Onsite Wastewater and Wells module will manage
  all applications, IPs, CAs
• Will integrate with Thales GPS units to locate
  well and septic locations with county GIS system.
• System will be drawn on tablet computers in the
  field.
• Activities will be tracked in more depth,
  allowing more accurate costing data

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QIP Benefits vs. Issues

• Benefits

• Issues

• Catch problems while still manageable
• Assess program and manpower issues in verifiable
  ways
• Helps address personnel problems
• Actually does (in time) improve your program

• Requires commitment of time and resources
• Reveals problems you may have wished you didnt
• Growing pains Its a plan - it takes time (and
  much staff effort) to see the results