Re: Survey frequency and inspection

["Andrew Karam" <akaram@safety.rochester.edu>]

To be honest with you, I think that two different things are on the table.
One is staff workload and the other is "customer" relations.  To some
extent, of course, they are inter-related.

With respect to staff workload, in the responses I have received thus far
(including some follow-up questions) I have noticed that, in general, Rad
Safety programs that perform the monthly inspections ALL have very few labs
and users.  My supposition is that it is possible for these programs to
provide this service with no degradation of their other functions.  In our
case, we have 320 labs and 3 technicians.  This comes out to 3840 surveys
annually, which is about 2 FTEs just for surveying. 

With respect to customer relations, my feeling is that our highest priority
is health and safety followed by regulatory compliance and customer
service.  It is important to see everyone (and to be seen by everyone) on a
routine basis, but our customers will be much less pleased with us if we
are shut down for repeated regulatory non-compliance.  We have a lot of
contact with people through our other functions, including training,
radioactive package delivery, waste pickup, instrument calibration, and so
forth.  My personal opinion is that it does not make sense for us to
perform a huge service if we have to rush through it, can't do it all
anyhow, and it degrades our ability to perform other services properly.
Or, if you prefer, I would prefer to do fewer things well than to try to do
everything for everyone poorly.

I am continuing to collect feedback from everyone responding and I will
post a summary by the end of the week, when I am sure all responses are in.
 To those of you who have taken the time to e-mail or call (some at great
length), thank you!

Sincerely,

Andy

Andrew Karam, MS, CHP			akaram@safety.rochester.edu
RSO, University of Rochester		http://www.rochester.edu/Admin/EHAS/rshpage.htm 
(716) 275-3781 (voice)				(716) 256-0365 (fax)

"Just as, from the pawprint alone, one recognizes the lion." Johann
Bernoulli, 1697 referring to Newton's anonymous solution of the
brachistochrone problem. 

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