The bacteria known as legionella – which, when inhaled from tiny droplets of water at locations where it has got into the water supply, can cause Legionnaires’ disease and other health conditions – continues to present risks that cannot be ignored.
When it comes to the management of legionella risks at a premises for which you are responsible, you have many good reasons to prioritise the modernisation of your approach.
After all, it is not “merely” the protection of public health – as serious a factor though this is – that legionella risk management has implications for. That’s because there are also crucial legal obligations that you will need to comply with, which could leave you liable if you fail to manage the risks adequately.
Traditionally, the legionella risk management process has been associated with a variety of challenges. These have encompassed the need to depend on awkward manual logbooks, disjointed data, and an all-too-common tendency for vital tasks to be missed.
Leading cloud-based tools – such as Vision Pro Software – are already proving a transformative solution for the management of legionella risks at sites like yours. Below, we have set out some of the ways in which this has proven to be the case.
What makes legionella risk management so complex?
It is difficult to talk for very long about legionella risk management in the UK, without referring to certain documents – available from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) – that set out the pertinent regulatory compliance requirements for legionella:
- The Approved Code of Practice (ACOP) and guidance document under the L8 series code, entitled Legionnaires’ disease: The control of legionella bacteria in water systems
- The technical guidance under the HSG274 series code
Together, these documents outline how dutyholders, those in control of premises, and those with health and safety responsibilities for others, can adhere to their legal duties to control legionella risks. Free copies can be downloaded from the HSE website.
However, even dutyholders possessing a high level of understanding of the rules and regulations, have long been hamstrung by the common pitfalls of traditional legionella risk management methods, such as:
- Disorganisation
- Delayed responses to risks
- Audit trail gaps
This is before one also accounts for the further complexities and challenges involved when there is a need to manage multiple sites and stakeholders.
How do cloud-based tools change the game?
One of the biggest and best reasons to invest in cloud-based software for the management of legionella risks at a premises that you control, is the opportunity it brings to force a paradigm shift from reactive to proactive compliance management.
Such a switch can be greatly useful because of how it helps you to identify emerging issues at the earliest possible stage. This, in turn, enables you to make the operational changes that may be necessary in order to maintain compliance over time.
Digitising your legionella risk management approach with an online-based software package like Vision Pro Software enables you to optimise the speed, consistency, and scalability of these vital operations.
Embracing such cloud-based technology also allows you to ensure high standards of data security, audit trails, and traceability. Furthermore, the role-based access control embedded in the leading systems contributes to the effective management of stakeholder involvement.
How does real-time data collection improve accuracy and response times?
The best cloud-based tools for legionella risk management allow for the real-time collection of relevant data, with field technicians able to upload results on-site via mobile devices.
Whatever legionella risk management platform you ultimately opt for, you will be thankful for software that is closely integrated with smart thermostats and sensors to help reduce human error.
The scope for instant temperature flagging, together with photographic evidence, will allow you to respond quickly and appropriately to any concerns about your property’s water systems that could heighten the risks of legionella.
What are the benefits of centralised access and stakeholder collaboration?
A major advantage of adopting cloud-based software for legionella risk management, is that such a platform can serve as a secure and central, but also widely accessible “single source” of relevant data about your premises.
Our own Vision Pro Software, for instance, operates on the basis of permission-based collaboration without data silos.
When you invest in a cloud-based solution that comprises centralised dashboards and that permits shared access among landlords, contractors, and property managers, this can allow for more effective coordination between these various parties. This advantage can be particularly felt in the case of complex or multi-tenant properties.
How do automated alerts reduce missed tasks and oversight risk?
Even the simple inclusion of automated alerts in your chosen legionella risk management platform, can make a big difference to the effectiveness of the broader management process.
With its functionality for automated scheduling and reminders, Vision Pro Software helps to ensure no vital tasks are missed.
Triggers are incorporated in the software for out-of-date readings or overdue inspections. They work alongside the responsible organisation’s escalation protocols to help ensure accountability and follow-through, thereby guarding against legionella risks.
Is it customisable enough for your unique portfolio?
When you are comparing the possibilities for a cloud-based legionella risk management platform for your property (or several properties), you will want to be sure that the solution you eventually choose allows for tailored workflows and inspection templates.
After all, every organisation – and every portfolio of properties – is different to the next. Vision Pro Software caters to this diversity by providing support for a broad range of building types and system configurations.
The smart forms within this platform – encompassing adaptive fields and asset-specific checks – will help to make sure no aspect of legionella risk at your properties is overlooked.
How does it scale from single sites to national portfolios?
With Vision Pro Software being online-based, it has been designed to be easily and quickly scalable up or down, in line with whatever the software user’s circumstances and requirements may be at the given time.
Regardless of how many properties you may need to manage the legionella risks for, you can depend on Vision Pro Software adhering to uniform standards across a broad diversity of sites.
Our platform helps deliver consistent compliance, irrespective of the geographical locations of the properties being monitored and managed, or the local teams that may be in place.
Moreover, our platform provides centralised trend analysis across all the properties that are accounted for in the system. This makes possible highly informed, enterprise-level decision-making on the management of legionella risks.
What’s the ROI of going digital?
Compared to the awkwardness of having to deal with often haphazard and outdated paper documents, the digitisation of your legionella risk management arrangements can help bring a multitude of benefits.
Such benefits can include greatly reduced legal risk, shorter periods of operational downtime, and minimised insurance exposure.
Our own metrics reveal the profound level of impact that Vision Pro Software can have – including a 74% reduction in reporting time, and 68% risk improvement.
Can cloud-based tools help with more than just legionella?
The short answer to this question is: yes!
Indeed, one of the major advantages of Vision Pro Software is that it can serve as a broader modular compliance suite. Our system integrates legionella risk management activities with wider compliance needs – including in relation to fire safety, asbestos, and disability access.
Our cloud-based solution comprises a single-pane-of-glass dashboard, designed to ensure intuitive and holistic property risk management.
What happens when buildings are vacant or reoccupied?
The risk of contracting Legionnaires’ disease may be especially high when people are exposed to water from taps and showers that are not used frequently. This means there is a particular need for proactive and responsible legionella risk management at properties that are vacant, or sites that might be in the process of being brought back into use for the first time in a while.
In accordance with this, the best cloud-based tools for legionella risk management will incorporate specific workflows for reactivation after a period of property vacancy. These should encompass documented flushing, testing, and certification workflows.
Sure enough, Vision Pro Software provides the ideally suited tools to prepare a given building for safe re-entry.
How do you get started without disrupting operations?
Whatever cloud-based solution for the management of legionella risk you ultimately decide to invest in, a well-designed implementation planning approach – encompassing such aspects as training, data migration, and configuration – can help ensure a smooth transition to using the new system.
With regard to training, for example, we can help with this by providing online training in how to use the legionella risk assessment software, for both yourself and any contractors, before you go as far as actually implementing Vision Pro Software.
This can help ensure that whether you opt for a gradually phased rollout or full deployment from the “first day” of using your new system, your personnel will know how to get the best out of the platform’s features at the earliest possible stage.
Conclusion: from burden to strategic advantage
Promising such key benefits as enhanced efficiency, control, visibility, and peace of mind, the leading cloud-based tools can make a profound difference to how you manage legionella risks across your property portfolio.
Ultimately, when your legionella risk management arrangements are well-optimised – making the most of the relevant technologies of the 2020s – this can deliver strategic and competitive advantages for your organisation.
Why not evaluate Vision Pro Software to discover whether it could provide the scalable and future-ready compliance that you require across your sites? Simply contact us today to find out more about our system’s functionality and performance, and to request a demo.
