Re: Guidelines for SOP s

[Celia Rajkovich - Radiation Safety Technician <celiar@andrew.cmu.edu>]

One important note: (unless i am mistaken)
If company or institute where you are employed is ISO ... certified or plan
to be in the future, you must keep the previous copies.


--On Tuesday, January 30, 2001, 11:33 AM -0600 Zack Clayton
<zack.clayton@epa.state.oh.us> wrote:

> I can't point you at a website, but in terms of writing SOPs, I can share
> what I have just gone through with ours.  
> 
> 1.  Get someone you trust to do the procedure.  Take notes and ask
> questions about what they are doing and why they are doing it.  This may
> annoy them so be patient.  After you have captured their activity you can
> ask about alternative ways of doing it.  
> 
> 2.  Write this as a text flow chart or checklist., just like a simple
> computer program.  Try to be linear.  No spaghetti code and keep your
> subroutine calls to a minimum.  If some action repeats, then copy and
> paste the steps in the new location.  DO NOT refer back to the previous
> location. For example, at Alert, Site Area Emergency, and General
>        Emergency our Dose Assessment procedure calls out a call down list
>        of notifications.  This is listed out each time and includes a
>        space to indicate the time of contact for each call.  Thus our SOP
>        also becomes our record log for legal purposes.  It also lists out
>        a review of dose limits and turn back values for field teams
>        instead of referring to their procedure, which also has these
>        values. In other words, if it is worth mentioning, it is worth
>       putting in all of it.
> 
> 3. I have found that an outline format is easier for people  to follow
> than a narrative in paragraph form.
> 
> 4.  Writing an SOP  this way does two things, it reminds you of the steps
> to follow even if you haven't done them in a year or so.  AND it lets a
> reasonably competent replacement function in case you aren't functional.
> 
> 5.  EVERY TIME the SOP is used, for real or for a drill, evaluate it.
> Make changes if a rough spot is discovered,  or if someone  misinterprets
> what a particular step means.  
> 
> 6.  A Title, page number ___ of ____ ,  printing date, and Revision
> number should be on every page in the header.  Destroy all old copies
> unless you have a specific reference collection (recommended in reference
> to 5 above.)  A revision number that incorporates the date of the
> revision is handy  (2001.01.30), but does not replace the date of the
> printing.
> 
> Any other comments?  I know this isn't all of them.
> 
> Zack Clayton
> Ohio EPA - DERR
> email:  zack.clayton@epa.state.oh.us
> voice:  614-644-3066
> fax:       614-460-8249
> icq:       105931792
> 
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