In response to COVID-19, global professional services company GHD rapidly developed and deployed a digital tool to help clients meet regulatory and operational requirements for essential employees.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in USA and Canada, GHD’s EHS Compliance team has helped numerous businesses to complete respiratory fit testing for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for essential employees in sectors such as retail.

In order to remain open during the outbreak, these businesses needed to bring additional employees under the OSHA Respiratory Protection Standard and provide OSHA-compliant documentation of employee respiratory fit testing. Some of these companies needed fit testing completed across multiple sites in North America within a short time frame.

For one major retailer, GHD provided N95 respirator fit testing for 375 employees across 34 locations.

“Clients sought us out for our experience in respiratory protection, work procedures, ventilation and decontamination. In response, we mobilized our network of respiratory hygienists across North America and developed a digital, paperless solution to provide OSHA-compliant documentation,” explains Dyron Hamlin, GHD’s Principal – EHS in Little Rock, AR.

GHD developed mobile data collection forms, interface and data export workflows to minimize time-consuming paper-handling. The result is a fully paperless solution comprising forms with multiple data tables, which are cross-referenced for increased data quality control.

Data are entered by field staff during the fit testing process and the result is an OSHA-compliant PDF summary of fit testing record per test. Immediately after the fit testing, clients have access to a data portal website, with all information stored on GHD secure servers.

Hamlin adds, “Rapid response and delivery to meet the needs of our clients, especially in EHS, is critical. The use of this adaptable technology and tools allow GHD to provide efficient solutions to a wide range of future situations.”