Southern Nevada Health District (SNHD) — whose mission is to assess, protect and promote the health, environment and well-being of Southern Nevada communities, residents and visitors — moved its food handler card renewal process online to ease the burden on both restaurant workers and SNHD staff.
Impact
With the huge tourism industry in places like Las Vegas, SNHD must ensure a large number of workers are qualified to handle food safely. Online food handler card renewal allows constituents to complete the renewal process on their own time, eliminating the need to wait for a physical appointment. The previous in-person requirement was inconvenient for restaurant workers due to odd hours of operations and the need to take personal leave. The training materials and test are in 20 different languages to make it easy for those with limited English proficiency to truly understand the safety protocols, thus increasing their chances of passing the test on their first attempt.
Paying for the card online and printing a PDF copy of the certificate is simple and intuitive. All major credit and debit cards are accepted. Since the deployment of this project during the summer, approximately 6,000 cards have been renewed online.
The renewal process used to take about 30 minutes. Now constituents can renew their cards within 10 minutes. Travel time and cost is also negated with the online process.
SNHD’s staff shortage once limited the number of daily appointments that could be made. The online process allows SNHD staff to focus on providing better service for those who need to come in personally for their card.
Advice
SNHD recommends the following actions:
- Provide links on the main renewal website to published training materials in multiple languages.
- Create a question bank in multiple languages.
- Allow food handlers to use various payment methods.
- Offer print certificates that can be validated by restaurant inspectors.
