UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Department of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) is implementing a new, cloud-hosted, software platform — LionSafe, powered by Salute. LionSafe is designed as a state-of-the-art, University-wide online system that allows employees to report issues, and EHS to track and address them.
By providing a “one-stop shop” for the University community to manage or submit environmental health and safety information, LionSafe will help to reduce administrative burden by transitioning from historical email and paper-based documentation to a modern electronic system. Additionally, data collected in LionSafe will be analyzed to help drive ongoing development and enhancement of health and safety practices throughout Penn State locations, providing for greater oversight of environmental and occupational health and safety programs.
This will help EHS with its ongoing management of its five areas of responsibility: Environmental Protection, Laboratory and Research Safety, Workplace Safety, Radiation Protection, and Hazardous Materials.
The first phase rollout will include four “modules”: Assessments, Chemical Safety, Equipment, and Incidents Management. Penn State staff and faculty who are involved with any of these four areas will receive emails from LionSafe in the coming days. These emails will encourage users to log in to complete any tasks that have been assigned, such as responding to an assessment finding or managing chemical inventories. LionSafe will continue to expand with additional features and capabilities introduced in future modules.
“Launching an enterprise-wide safety information system like LionSafe is an important step in modernizing our environmental health and safety efforts, and will play a crucial role in supporting the safety of all Penn Staters,” said Bill Sitzabee, vice president for facilities management and planning and chief facilities officer. “I’m grateful for all who have been involved in preparing to launch the new system.”
In addition to helping maintain health and safety standards across the University, LionSafe will be instrumental in EHS’s regulatory compliance efforts.
Jim Crandall, director of EHS, said, “LionSafe will help provide continuity in how environmental health and safety programs and services are maintained and protected across the University. The LionSafe project team has collaborated with our Salute vendor to tailor the software to Penn State’s and EHS’s specific needs. In addition, University faculty and staff have been instrumental in pilot testing and providing valuable feedback as we developed and implemented this new platform to serve the University community.”
Below are more details about the Phase-1 modules:
- Assessments
- Electronic surveys and forms are used to inspect and audit labs, shops, equipment, permits and other locations. Assessments and any related findings that require corrective action can be assigned to the appropriate responsible person. Each record stored in LionSafe provides EHS access to advanced analytics to help it identify trends, respond proactively and reduce risk to help promote University safety.
- Chemical Safety
- An updated, easy-to-use module for community members to manage, reference and reconcile their chemical inventories. This module will serve as a replacement for the current chemical inventory management software.
- Equipment
- An inventory of safety-related equipment used at the University. Some examples include chemical hoods, automated external defibrillators, and portable fire extinguishers. Each piece of equipment has its own inspection compliance timeline, which can be reset after a safety assessment has been conducted.
- Incidents
- This module provides everyone at the University the ability to electronically report a non life-threatening emergency, and/or EHS-related incident. EHS staff will then have a digital record of each event that occurs across all campuses, can communicate with other staff members through the platform, and analyze trends to find root causes and ways to reduce the risk of future occurrences.
More information for students, faculty and staff can be found at the LionSafe website, which includes resources like training videos, user guides and FAQs. Users can direct questions, feedback, or issues about LionSafe to lionsafe@psu.edu.