The program will be tested this spring, and go districtwide in fall, Cipriano says. Since August 2000, Fort Worth, Texas, health inspectors have made rounds at restaurants and hotels bearing hand-held computers and foodservice inspection software instead of blank forms, pens and clipboards. Now inspectors enter observations and recommendations directly into computers. It's a terrific tool for standardization. There's no more ambiguity about what an inspector wrote.
Efficiencies extend to the main office as well.
Every two to three days, field officers come in and download their information onto the server. At the same time, the server uploads new information into the hand-held units.