County LPP Employs Tablets In Home Inspections

Picente: “Another ‘Tool in the Toolbox’ to Combat Childhood Lead Poisoning”

The Oneida County Lead Poisoning Prevention field staff is employing innovative technology solutions to increase both the efficiency and effectiveness of their home inspection activities, County Executive Anthony J. Picente, Jr. announced today.  The use of iPADs will reduce the time spent on each home inspection and improve communications with office-based supervisors, resulting in an increase in the number of home lead inspections that can be conducted.

“In this challenging fiscal climate, my administration is continuously exploring cost effective methods that exploit technological solutions that allow our employees to work smarter and more productively,” Picente said.  He added, “Employing tablet technology allows our LPP staff to inspect more houses each month protecting more children from the hazards of lead-based paint.  The county’s Lead Primary Prevention program continues to be a leader across New York State in piloting new methods of eliminating childhood lead poisoning in our community.”

According to Cathe Bullwinkle, Quality Improvement Coordinator for the Oneida County Health Department, the iPADs with integrated cameras make it possible to complete an inspection report while in the field by permitting digital photographs to be taken and  floor-plan sketches to be created and uploaded in the field;  allow supervisors to view violations in real time and make recommendations for additional inspection areas or sampling; and improve communications between supervisors and field staff.  “Since this technology reduces the number of times staff need to return to the office between inspections there is a savings in mileage costs and travel time as well, freeing up staff for additional inspections,” Bullwinkle said.  She added, “Given our current workload and the number of houses we have to inspect with children under 6 years of age in the household, the increased productivity realized with the use of the tablets is like increasing our staff at no additional salary cost.  With each additional house we are able to inspect, children in our community are spared the permanent brain damage and learning disabilities associated with lead poisoning and Oneida County taxpayers are saved the costs associated with long-term health care, early intervention and social services.”

The iPADs were purchased with funding provided by the New York State Department of Health’s Lead Primary Prevention grant.

For more information on lead poisoning prevention or the Oneida County LPP program visit our web site at ocgov.net/oneida/health or call (315) 266-6147.