Aligning around safety training and practices

Whether dealing with in-house staff or contractors, facilities management and construction professionals all have a common goal to send workers home the same way they came in: safely.

There are many great references and tools that provide guidance on day-to-day safety practices for facilities management teams and associated vendors and contractors. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) provides tools for basic safety training. For instance, facilities team members can complete an OSHA 10-hour training program, and supervisors can complete an OSHA 30-hour training program. This provides not only staff training but also the basis for internal work safety programs.

Internal construction teams can partner with physical plant and/or engineering teams quarterly to conduct OSHA Voluntary Protection Program meetings, keeping everyone in line with the same education. Contractor safety policy checklists should be evaluated annually to ensure all companies and their workers receive the same level of training.

Physical plant teams and construction teams also need to develop a robust process for safe work practices for managing utilities. Once a week, teams should review any upcoming shutdowns that need to occur. Stakeholders should compose and review a utility shutdown document to make sure all levels of safety, life safety, infection control risk assessment (ICRA) and sign-offs are completed before the review meeting. All parties should engage in the meeting to review any fire alarm/sprinkler work needed to support any projects throughout the complex, then review the rest of the trades’ work, such as information technology, medical gas, water, electric, steam, etc.

The document can have a series of questions or check boxes to verify whether any work requires an ICRA or interim life safety measures. This ensures a thorough methodology for completing projects in a safe manner. 

Jeffrey Henne, CHC, CHSP, CHEP, CHFSM, CHPCP, FASHE, safety and emergency manager at Penn Medicine — University of Pennsylvania Health System.