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Inspections and Maintenance Programs
Facilities inspections and regular maintenance programs are vital to both reducing the risk of someone being injured on your premises and extending the life of your assets. The goal is to identify issues before they become problems.
Facility Inspections
A visual inspection of main facility areas should be completed every calendar month. This inspection should note anything that needs to be changed, repaired, or replaced. In addition, a thorough inspection of the entire facility should be completed annually (semi-annually for facilities regularly visited by the public), including every room, closet, and crawl space. This information should be added into your maintenance program to ensure that your facilities are safe and in good working order. We can help by providing your organization with sample inspection forms for all types of facilities.
These inspections do not need to be stand-alone and time-consuming. If you are completing occupational health and safety inspections as part of your normal operations, facility inspections can be ‘piggybacked’ on to save time and energy.
Regular inspections of playgrounds are particularly important, as playgrounds are exposed to the elements and see frequent use by children. Playground inspections should look for inappropriate fall surfaces, broken equipment, missing safety rails, steps, rungs or chains, and that rules are still posted. Any unsafe equipment should be repaired, removed, or replaced immediately to prevent risk of injury.
Maintenance Programs
A regular maintenance program should be planned to improve facility safety, extend the life of facilities, and avoid any unplanned maintenance. Maintenance programs minimize breakdowns and excessive depreciation. They should include annual service to fire safety systems and extinguishers, painting, lubrication, cleaning, adjusting, and minor component replacement. Neither equipment nor facilities should be allowed to get to the breaking point. In many ways, preventive maintenance can be compared to the service schedule for an automobile.
A valid preventive maintenance program should include:
Inspections and a regular maintenance can contribute a great deal to a solid risk management program. Finding and correcting issues before they become a problem will keep everyone safe and lead to less loss of property.
For any questions or more information please contact our risk management team!
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