Keeping Guam Safe: Public health inspection updates
BY ALTHEA ENGMAN Journal Staff
In the span of five weeks, public health inspectors visited 53 establishments, including a daycare center that had its sanitary permit reinstated, a temporary workforce housing that passed its regular inspection, and a fast food restaurant that received an ‘A’ with 7 demerits for issues that were corrected on site like ensuring employees wash their hands and ensuring food contact surfaces are cleaned and sanitized regularly. Guam DPHSS Division of Environmental Health located in Dededo. Photo by Althea Engman
According to Vener Raymundo, environmental public health officer, the Division of Environmental Health of the Department of Public Health and Social Services currently has eight inspectors, a decrease from the 11 inspectors reported during a budget hearing in mid-June. The inspectors are responsible for about 3,000 existing establishments on the island. Raymundo said per month, DEH conducts 25-35
pre-operational inspections and 66-100 compliance inspections.
The Journal asked if the eight inspectors are sufficient to complete all inspections and whether they have waitlists, and if so how long is the typical wait. Raymundo said “applications are processed (within) a week once the pre-operations inspection is conducted and/or the last document is received from the applicant. Typically, he said pre-operations inspections have a two-week wait.
During the June budget hearing, Sen. Roy A.B. Quinata similarly asked DPHSS officials if they have the capacity to inspect all permitted establishments.
“We do our best,” responded Francine Salas, management analyst, Division of Environmental Health. “We do not have the appropriate or ideal number to inspect everything, which is why we are recruiting.”
DEH personnel conduct sanitary permit inspections for new businesses, renewals, regular inspections and complaints. Inspectors also conduct assessments of businesses during special circumstances such as a boil water notice to ensure proper steps are being taken by the business to protect itself and its customers. Appearing at a budget hearing for the Department of Public Health and Social Services at the Guam Legislature on June 18 are, from left: PeterJohn D. Camacho, deputy director of DPHSS; Theresa C. Arriola, acting director of DPHSS; Terry C. Aguon, deputy director of DPHSS; and Francine Salas, management analyst, Division of Environmental Health of DPHSS. Photo screenshot of Guam Legislature livestream.
Raymundo tells the Journal that for a new business they must first obtain a business license application and receive clearance from all other agencies. Businesses must then apply to the Business License and Permit Center for a sanitary permit followed by a visit to Public Health leading to a preoperational inspection of the establishment done by DEH.
Health regulated establishments must go one step further and apply for sanitary permits. To maintain those permits, these businesses must undergo regular inspections to ensure they are maintaining health and safety standards. Health regulated establishments include:
Dry cleaners
Cosmetics (barbers, beauty
salons etc.)
Edible garbage feeding (farm, ranch, facility, premises, etc. that processes edible garbage to feed livestock)
Food service establishment (includes restaurants, bakeries, grocery store, vegetable market, food warehouse, or facility that processes, cans, manufactures foods.)
When permitted establishments are inspected they’re rated based on the demerits received. An ‘A’ rating corresponds to up to 10 demerits, a ‘B ’ is for up to 11 to 20 demerits, a ‘C’ for up to 20 to 40 demerits, and anything above 41 results in a ‘D’ rating, meaning “a closure for that establishment," Raymundo said.
“DEH does not enjoy suspending sanitary permits of establishments leading to closure,” he said. “We want business to succeed while we protect the public from unsanitary conditions. Inspections are meant to educate.”
For a non-critical violation, a business will have up to 30 days to remedy the issue. Establishments have less than that, 10 days, to correct critical violations, Raymundo said. He added that “in cases where establishments need more time, DEH will accommodate accordingly.”
DEH also allows modified solutions to a regulatory requirement. Such variance requests consider alternate solutions “to a requirement if an establishment is unable to accomplish the initial expectation.”
The Journal asked if DEH has ever shut down a business for repeatedly failing an inspection. Raymundo responded, saying “every compliance inspection can result in the suspension of a sanitary permit if there is an imminent hazard or exceeds 40 demerit points.”
He added that for pre-operational inspections “there is no limit to the number of time a business can fail a pre-op inspection, but they do need to pay a fee after the initial pre-op inspection.”
Common questions from the community often surround the requirements needed to obtain a sanitary permit. Other frequently asked questions involve selling food at events. Raymundo said these activities require temporary food service establishment permit. This type of permit would go through the same process of submitting a sanitary permit application as well as additional fees depending on the event type. Checklists are also provided to new establishments prior to inspections to serve as a guide. For further information on inspection requirements visit dphss.guam.gov.
ArriolaTheresa C. Arriola, acting director of DPHSS, presented a $237.2 million budget request for the upcoming fiscal year 2025, which starts Oct. 1. Of the total budget request, $19 million covers personnel, which covers both current employees and vacancies. As of the date of the budget hearing, DEH had four inspector vacancies but has since lost three inspectors. Salas, while acknowledging the shortage of inspectors, also noted that recent legislation help to ease the load on DEH inspectors.
Following the outcry from public health employees, senators passed a bill to renew sanitary permits on an annual basis, regardless of issue date, instead of June 30 every year for all permitted establishments. The governor signed Sen. Chris Barnett’s Bill 226-37, into public law 37-80 on March 6. “This amendment reflected the reality that our island’s modern economy involves far more businesses than those in existence at the time of the original statute, which dated to the 1970 Government Code. Over time, the unwieldy law imposed a substantial burden on DPHSS personnel required to issue the renewals, without sufficient justification,” Gov. Lourdes A. Leon Guerrero wrote to Speaker Therese M. Terlaje.
A second piece of legislation, Bill No. 242-37, further reduced inspection requirements which used to be once every three months. With 3,000 establishments to inspect, that meant 12,000 inspections each year, which the governor said exceeds DEH’s capability. The governor said like the bill she signed into law in March, Bill 242 was a requirement in the government code “not intended for the number of businesses currently subject to sanitary permitting.”
Bill 242 “ensures that our laws reflect reality, not only of limitations in existing agency staffing resources, but also the fact that the risk associated with different establishments is not equal,” the governor stated.
In April, the governor signed it into public law 37-87, authorizing DPHSS to prioritize the inspections of food establishments and establishments providing service to vulnerable populations, such as child care facilities, hospital cafeterias, and facilities preparing meals for the elderly over the inspection of other establishments that pose lower risk to public health.
Salas said reducing the mandate of inspecting permitted establishments from four times a year to risk-based “reduces the frequency of inspections in general so that you get a better quality of inspection.”
“We still are going to inspect a lot of these establishments once a year at least but four times a year is a bit much,” Salas said.
She added that establishments like childcare facilities and elder centers, anything that services a susceptible population, “we’re there quarterly anyways.”
However, she added, they are “continuously hiring (and) this year’s budget request does reflect funding vacant positions that we are hoping to fill soon.
The agency also has a recruitment and retention plan to help drum up interest for inspector jobs. “But in addition to that, we’re working with (the Guam Community College) and (the University of Guam) for internships, certifications, new positions and modifying current positions to allow individuals to come from GCC or UOG to come into environmental health,” Salas said. mbj
