Update Details: New form for completing and documenting monthly Respiratory Protective Equipment (RPE) Inspection and Maintenance Record.
We reviewed a form that was in use by one of our clients (which they had downloaded and adapted from a government guidance web site) for logging inspection and maintenance of RPE and we noted that the form was terrible and not really fit for purpose and decided to come up with something better!
The 'terrible' form had a number of clear issues / faults;
- Redundancy - much of the form wasn't used. The form was designed for 2 types of RPE and since half the form was for the other type only half of the form was ever completed!
- Titles in column headings - due to this design with titles in a column there was very limited space to explain what was being checked so was unclear / there was scope for checks to not be completed correctly
- Pointless fields - the form included a field to enter the company name (it's a company form and name should already be stated on the template!) and a signature box which wasn't necessary
- Landscape limited - as the form have been laid out in landscape to accommodate all the planned and pointless redundancy there wasn't actually much space for documenting the checks and the form didn't even cover a full year
We gave this poorly-performing form the full alphaZ redesign treatment while also adding to and fixing some of the fields to make it more usable and legally complaint;
- Company name added to the header as per all other forms
- Re-oriented to Portrait layout so now enough space to document 12 monthly checks (so the record is for a full year)
- Overview of checks to be completed added using a numbered index to correspond to numbered checks on the checklist table - this allows for an overview and full description of all the key checks and also removed the redundancy - you can simply edit the check details to indicate if there is a visor or not for full or half-face mask checks
- Field for details of maintenance to be documented (legal requirement)
- Signature field changed to details of who checked (check should be completed by someone competent, signature is not required)
- Details of records retention added (again legal requirement)
We take pride in designing and setting up efficient, neat and well designed forms and were pleased with the final form here - if you're using RPE then this form may help with ensuring checks are completed and documented correctly.
New file added to page;
