Pennsylvania’s Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) developed and implemented a Remote Inspection process in April 2020 to ensure that essential licensing inspections could continue during the COVID-19 pandemic. While Pennsylvania’s containment measures have been successful, the risk of virus transmission posed by traditional inspection techniques is still too high to return to fully onsite inspections. As such, ODP has made Remote Inspections part of its long-term strategy to slow the spread of the virus. This session will present key elements of ODP’s strategy, including the use of Community Spread data to determine whether an onsite inspection can be conducted safely, conducting “Hybrid” inspections that have both onsite and remote components, and the role of Remote Inspections when a licensing staff person has been potentially exposed to COVID-19.
Presented by: Ron Melusky & Alisa Hendrickson
