The Los Angeles County Public Health – Environmental Health Division is a regulatory agency responsible for enforcing state and local laws for the protection of public health. The division regulates a variety of entities that include restaurants, retail and wholesale markets, mobile food vehicles, farmer markets among others.

Public Health recently proposed to increase permit fees in FY 2011-12 in order to recover actual costs associated with these inspections. Under this plan, cafeterias would have been tiered based on seating capacity and food handling risk, and most hospital cafeterias would have been placed either in a moderate or high-risk category.

HASC contacted Environmental Health (EH) to obtain clarification on the plan’s proposed impact on a hospital cafeteria that serves both hospital inpatients and the public. EH was informed by the  Department of Public Health that its Health Facilities Division is responsible for inspecting hospital cafeterias that serve both patients and the public. EH will cancel the restaurant permit for any hospital cafeteria under the jurisdiction of the Health Facilities Division in order to prevent the duplication of services. A policy will be distributed to EH staff to prevent the permitting of these facilities in the future.

This policy change does not affect cafertias that exclusively serve the public. In addition, all remodel or construction of a new hospital cafeteria will still require plan review and approval by the Environmental Health Division’s Plan Check Section. Once EH issues approval to operate, hospital cafeterias that serve a dual function will be transferred to the Health Facilities Division for inspection.