Fire safety in hospitals is a crucial consideration as estates are often large and complex, and patients may not be able to be easily moved in the event of an evacuation. And the pressure on health estates managers has increased in recent years, particularly since the Grenfell Tower tragedy and ensuing critical reports on fire safety standards.

As a result, fire safety audits are now essential undertakings that must be completed regularly, and any issues actioned on time to remain compliant. But the traditional approach of recording and monitoring such processes, including any resulting actions, using paper, PDFs, or Excel spreadsheets, is no longer sufficient, and hospital trusts must embrace more modern digital methods.

Switching to digital

This problem was evidenced when ex-firefighter and fire safety expert, Colin Simpson, co-founder of compliance management software company, Risk Warden, visited a hospital to conduct fire risk assessments. After speaking with staff, it turned out the hospital had already undertaken these assessments, but after a visit from the local fire and rescue service, managers could not find evidence to prove they were completing the corrective actions resulting from those assessments.

This interaction sparked the idea of digitising risk assessments to make corrective actions available instantly, enabling the hospital risk owner to quickly delegate, track, and complete these actions and providing them with the ability to evidence this to the relevant authorities. Simpson repeated all the assessments and placed them into a beta version of the Risk Warden software to provide them to the hospital digitally. However, the hospital declined to use the system because they did not see a need for it.

As a result, a few weeks later, the trust could not evidence compliance with the fire service and was issued an enforcement notice.

A single source of truth

Brent Young, a spokesman for Risk Warden, said: “Risk Warden was initially founded to help risk owners of complex buildings quickly and easily manage the corrective actions resulting from their risk assessments and ultimately keep people safe.

“If there is no transparency or visibility of information and documents, and no overview of risk and compliance data, it leads to no single source of truth, making it nearly impossible to manage.

“Risk Warden automates many of the manual processes that result from standard management methodologies, such as converting corrective actions into actionable and accountable tasks and tracks when risk assessments and documents are due to expire. “These processes are not only automated, but our built-in reminders and escalation process ensure hospital managers do not miss anything. “Our unique risk reduction system reduces the risk score whenever a user completes a corrective action. This functionality enables managers to see a real-time risk score instead of the snapshot score that was calculated at the time of the assessment. “And all this information is delivered through real-time, role-based reports and dashboards, ensuring every user is presented with relevant information when needed.”

Under pressure

This innovative digital approach is particularly timely as multiple pieces of the new legislation are being introduced, which will put added pressure on healthcare estates and facilities managers to improve fire safety procedures. Young said: “The building safety industry is undergoing the mostsignificant change in a generation, and one of the main challenges for risk and compliance managers lies with how competent persons can digitally capture the information, keep it up to date, and make it available to the appropriate stakeholders in the required format and at the right time. “Digitally transforming your risk and compliance management methodologies will streamline your processes and enable you to provide the necessary evidence when required. “Risk owners need to be prepared, both operationally and technologically, to minimise the cost and cultural impact of these legal obligations on their organisation.”

Looking ahead

Simpson adds: “Now is absolutely the right time for risk owners to prepare themselves for the future. “It is hard enough to keep up with the latest compliance regulations, but trying to achieve this without the right software tools is a recipe for disaster. “Risk owners will need to undergo a digital transformation process to support the growing amount of risk and compliance information that they will be required to maintain and evidence. “And, for this, they need a platform which makes this process faster, easier, and more cost effective so they can focus on what’s really important. “Today, Risk Warden is a comprehensive risk and compliance management platform, but our mission remains the same: to help risk owners control their property risk and compliance, both now and in the future, allowing them to provide evidence to the relevant authorities quickly and efficiently when needed.”

www.riskwarden.com