Building Environmental Health Capacity Through Digital Database Project and Short Term Rental Pool/Spa Bacteriological Monitoring Program - The Southeast Utah Health Department (SEUHD) serves a rural community, consisting of Grand, Carbon, and Emery Counties, that also caters to three million tourists every year. The rural population size of 40,000 places SEUHD in a position of declining funding since state funding focuses on high population growth areas. However, the population total and funding level do not account for the millions of tourists who visit our area for outdoor attractions, including Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, and the San Rafael Swell. Both Component A and Component B will benefit both local and visitor populations. Through the expansion of a digital database system, SEUHD will increase data collection and analysis capacity, which will help develop evidence-based practices needed to improve community health. The monitoring of food inspection, pool inspection, housing, hazmat, water quality, and air quality will improve, resulting in better compliance with public health codes. Data collection from Component B, regulating short term rental pools/spas, will help construct a model for other public health departments serving tourist populations and address EH hazards concerning non-regulated bodies of water. Key outputs include making data available for decision making and improving performance; identifying and prioritizing EH hazards; planning, implementing, and assessing EH interventions; and forming strategic partnerships with key agencies and organizations, such as the University of Utah Division of Public Health. SEUHD will work with the CDC and partners to address, prevent, and control EH hazards throughout the project period. With increased efficiency and effectiveness of EH interventions, the EH field will have more access to evidence on effectiveness of EH interventions, which will be used to develop a CDC EH Practice Guide and allow University of Utah to further study local health department interventions. At the conclusion of the projects, SEUHD will have adopted and implemented evidence-based EH best practices for the programs; reduced EH hazards resulting in improved environmental conditions and community health status for Grand, Carbon, and Emery Counties; demonstrated the value and importance of EH program services and interventions; and enhanced public health department EH program performance, capacity, agility, and resilience. Component A will increase the efficiency of making decisions on most effective interventions. Through five years of funding, SEUHD will be able to digitize food inspection, pool inspection (including Component B’s short term rental pool/spa monitoring program), housing, hazmat, water quality, and air quality data. An easily accessible online version of this data will be available to the public to inform their decision making as well. Component B will make short term rental properties more compliant with health code regulations. These pools/spas should have the same monitoring as hotels and other lodging since they also cater to the tourist population. Funding for both components will increase EH capacity and strengthen SEUHD’s ability to respond to community health hazards among the three counties. Outside organizations, especially the CDC and University of Utah, will have access to more local health department data that can inform best practices and prevent more EH hazards in the future.
