Skip to main content
Article
Assessing Hotel Employee Knowledge on Risk Factors and Risk Management Procedures for Microbial Contamination of Hotel Water Distribution Systems
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
  • Brandon Leftwich, Georgia Southern University, Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health
  • Samuel T. Opoku, Georgia Southern University, Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health
  • Jingjing Yin, Georgia Southern University, Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health
  • Atin Adhikari, Georgia Southern University, Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-29-2021
DOI
10.3390/ijerph18073539
Abstract

Water management plans (WMPs), sometimes referred to as risk management plans (RMPs) or water safety plans (WSPs), are not mandatory for hotels in many countries of the world, including he US. As such, many hotel personnel are uninformed of WMPs and the precautions to take if their hotel water system is compromised. The purpose of this study was to identify hotel personnel’s knowledge and practices of WMPs through a survey incorporating the Health Belief Model (HBM). Data were collected from 59 hotels within Fulton County, Georgia, USA, through a questionnaire, and questions were developed tailored to the HBM. Significant associations were found between the perceived susceptibility of contracting a waterborne illness and WMP for hotel personnel as well as between cues to action and having a WMP in general linear models (p <=0.05). The study concludes that many key personnel are not aware of WMPs. Many hotel facilities do not have a plan in place, and some facilities are unaware of a current plan is in place. The study findings provide insight into the importance of WMPs and the risk factors associated with microbial contamination in a hotel building’s plumbing system. Future research and potential law change should be emphasized to increase hotel employees’ and owner’s WMP knowledge.

Comments

© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Citation Information
Brandon Leftwich, Samuel T. Opoku, Jingjing Yin and Atin Adhikari. "Assessing Hotel Employee Knowledge on Risk Factors and Risk Management Procedures for Microbial Contamination of Hotel Water Distribution Systems" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health Vol. 18 Iss. 7 (2021) ISSN: 1661-7827
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/atin_adhikari/263/