Lessons Learned from Implementation of a Web-Based Environmental Health and Safety Management Database in an Academic Medical Center

Abstract

An environmental health and safety program for an academic medical center involves managing complex and diverse safety issues. The ability to ensure that required activities are performed and documented as well as ready access to environmental health and safety data to internal stakeholders are a few of the benefits that implementing a centralized environmental health and safety database can provide. The Environmental Health & Safety Department at the University of Texas Medical Branch is organized into operational groups based upon specialty (biological safety, radiation safety, occupational safety, fire safety, and environmental protection management). Historically, the organization has followed a decentralized approach to data management, with each specialty keeping data in their own format and inaccessible to employees in other specialties. Beginning in 2014, the department began the implementation of a unified environmental health and safety database. This database allows for a standardized approach ...