Improving the safety and air quality of our CIUSSS workplace
The Health, Safety and Well-being in the Workplace team (SSMET) has reported significant improvements in workplace safety and air quality. “Through the commitment and efforts of Technical Services and with the collaboration of each of our CIUSSS sites, in the last two years we’ve achieved results of which we can all be proud,” says Mario Beaulieu, an Industrial Hygienist, Health and Safety Executive Advisor and Biosafety Officer with the SSMET team.
“Our team of professionals carry out regular inspections analyzing different criteria concerning air quality and employee safety,” explains Mr. Beaulieu. “This is how we are able to count, for our entire network, the number of items of non-compliances, where specific regulations or guidelines are not respected.”
Examples of the data collected to study air quality include temperature, moisture levels, and concentrations of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. From 2016 to 2018, areas of non-compliance decreased by 82 per cent.
Workplace safety, meanwhile, is examined through an analysis of:
- the safety of machinery and compressed gases
- the risk of falls
- unsafe equipment
- clutter or storage of equipment
- fire hazards
- the ergonomics of office spaces
- emergency measures
- ventilation systems
- property damage
- lighting problems
Mr. Beaulieu also noted that inspections revealed a significant improvement in the safety of the work environment of CIUSSS employees, with an 81 per cent decrease in non-conforming items over the same two-year period. Inspections are held on a less frequent basis at the Jewish General Hospital owing to its massive size—3,500 rooms. The hospital undergoes a bi-annual inspection, with the upcoming one scheduled to take place in 2019.
“It is a great source of gratification for our two team inspectors and for me to see that following our evaluations, concrete measures are taken to improve the quality of life in our workplace,” says Mr. Beaulieu. “It is an achievement from which all CIUSSS employees benefit.”
