This Week: Investigation - Health Code Inspections in Worcester

Monday, August 26, 2013

GoLocalWorcester News Team and Kate Nagle

In many states, the public can access the findings of health inspectors via governmental Web sites – there is complete transparency. In the Commonwealth, the system is antiquated, in the case of Worcester all paper, and nearly impenetrable to find out if a specific restaurant is safe to dine.

This week GoLocal will unveil how the records are compiled, stored and reported to the Commonwealth. Throughout the past six weeks, GoLocalWorcester’s reporters, editors, and researchers have been investigating the safety of restaurants and health code inspections of each restaurant in Worcester.

TUESDAY

GoLocal reports on the public health importance of health inspections. In addition, we unveil the 50 Restaurants with worst health code scores in Worcester.

WEDNESDAY

GoLocal looks at restaurant chains and how they perform. Do their corporate resources and institutional policies improve their health inspection scores?

Also, we look at which fast food chain scored the highest and the lowest.

In addition, if you think the Commonwealth’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services is a source of information and capable of tracking the reports issued by the cities and towns – guess again. The Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services is required by statute to track the health code violations for each town, but the office of public affairs could not provide even the simplest reports and data in a timely manner.

THURSDAY

As part of the ongoing series, GoLocal will unveil the scores of each of the fast food restaurants in Worcester.

The Commonwealth’s Health code inspection system has a number of inefficiencies. While record keepers and inspectors work to try and cover the hundreds of regulated facilities, the reporting system is all paper. The antiquated system lacks electronic capture -- and puts itself in a precarious position.

This series included the work of seven GoLocal staffers and required the team to painstakingly review thousands of documents. Literally, the records of all the restaurants are located in a record storage office in nearly 50 drawers in file cabinets.

Please Note: GoLocal would like to thank the clerks of the division of housing and health inspection of the city of Worcester for their assistance and professionalism.