> >I am writing to you looking for samples of Standard Operating Procedures that you may have (or have seen) that detail best practices in the event of something happening in the building that necessitates a response from Facilities.
I have been through this discussion several times, which has only gotten more complicated over the years as lab building technologies have become more complex and failure modes more mysterious. In this context, my experience is that the situation you describe is not a SOP opportunity because there are so many possible scenarios that can create confusion.
I have had the most success (not 100%) by developing cross-cultural working relationships between the lab community, facilities operators and emergency responders over time. I have seen ongoing meetings between people representing these three groups make a big difference in how lab facility "urgent concerns" play out. Ideally,
EHS is the facilitator of these meetings and not the representative of one of these groups. However, convincing all three groups that investing time in building trust and communication between these groups before an incident can be a challenge. This approach worked best for me after a year where we had 6 major lab building responses (on the another campus) that disrupted the work of all three groups for more than 8 hours. Those events convinced upper management of those groups that what they were already doing wasn’t working.
Anyway, while facilities and emergencies responders understand SOPs best, those procedures can only be built based on nuanced conversations, often built around well-designed table top exercises. And this is not a one-off project - it needs to be repeated regularly (at least annually), since both people and lab facilities routinely change.
Good luck!
- Ralph
Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
ralph**At_Symbol_Here**rstuartcih.org
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