Today while passing active commercial construction in the South Waterfront area of Portland, I thought about how lucky we are to have so many leaders working toward zero incidents in construction in our community. And even better to have an opportunity for construction to collaboratively promote their commitment towards safe performance.

I am continually impressed by the programs developed by our Oregon partner, SafeBuild Alliance – the newly minted name of what we’ve known as the non-profit Greater Portland Construction Partnership.  In addition to creating informative, “worth your time” programs and dialogues, it’s a unique opportunity to mix industry safety professionals with those involved in leadership at all levels to dialogue about how to achieve an incident-free construction industry.

The topic of this week’s May 8 meeting, Construction Work in Healthcare, was addressed by 5 representatives of major healthcare providers in Oregon with expertise in facilities maintenance, construction safety and infectious disease. Even those contractors working regularly in healthcare seemed to pick up on new and useful information during the evening.  I particularly appreciated the comments of my colleague Gene Patrick, OHSU Construction Safety Manager, as he shared the importance and challenge of maintaining healthcare’s mission of protecting patients during all construction activities in hospitals and healthcare facilities.

This is another positive Oregon example of collaboration. Although we have challenges, look at where we can go when we sit at a table together and share our experiences, even if we don’t agree on all the details or when we are competitors in the marketplace. If you have anything to do with construction in Oregon, your organization deserves to learn more about SafeBuild. Visit the SafeBuild Alliance website and follow SafeBuild on Twitter and FaceBook.

Resources:
CROET web topic: Construction
PSU/CROET archived webinar: Innovations in Safety Climate