{"id":968,"date":"2017-07-28T14:43:45","date_gmt":"2017-07-28T19:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/taocompliance.com\/?p=968"},"modified":"2017-07-28T14:43:45","modified_gmt":"2017-07-28T19:43:45","slug":"why-we-changed-our-element-guidelines-to-be-called-written-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taocompliance.com\/?p=968","title":{"rendered":"Why we changed our element “Guidelines” to be called “Written Plans”"},"content":{"rendered":"

In mid-february we\u00a0changed every reference to Guideline\u00a0<\/em>in the example templates to Written Plan.\u00a0<\/em>This change was made to the Google Drive and logged on\u00a02\/3\/17. <\/span><\/p>\n

Although I have used\u00a0guideline<\/i>\u00a0for a very long time, it was really just out of habit – it’s not an accurate reflection of the intent of those documents. <\/span><\/p>\n

First: Where did this\u00a0Guideline<\/em> idea come from?<\/h2>\n

Well, it all started back in the\u00a0Employee Participation<\/em> element which requires you to have a document that explains how you intend\u00a0to comply with certain requirements.<\/p>\n

1910.119(c)(1) –\u00a0Employers shall develop a written plan<\/span> of action regarding the implementation of the employee participation required by this paragraph.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Over time we realized that these written plans of action were very useful and wrote them for every single PSM\/RMP element. For whatever reason, the very first program I ever worked on called this the “Guideline for Employee Participation” and I just stuck with that wording for well over a decade.<\/p>\n

Ok, so why call it a\u00a0Written Plan<\/em> rather than a\u00a0Guideline?\u00a0<\/em><\/h2>\n

Well, let’s look at definitions: <\/span><\/p>\n

A dictionary definition of\u00a0guideline<\/i>\u00a0is:<\/p>\n

“General rule, or piece of advice”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The word\u00a0plan<\/i>\u00a0defined in that same dictionary:<\/span><\/p>\n

“a detailed proposal for doing or achieving something;”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“an intention or decision about what one is going to do.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The word\u00a0plan <\/em>is\u00a0really what we are going for: A\u00a0decision<\/strong> about what the facility\u00a0is going to do. The intent of these documents, whether they are called\u00a0Written Plan<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0Guidelines,<\/em>\u00a0was always to document the detailed plan<\/em> that the facility intended to follow in achieving compliance.<\/p>\n

Anything else?<\/h2>\n

Actually, yes. Over the years we had to explain the above to several different inspectors: our Guidelines<\/em> were actually our written plans<\/em>. Frankly, it just got annoying explaining the same concept over and over again – especially when they had a point:\u00a0Rightly understood the documents really are\u00a0the\u00a0written plan<\/i>\u00a0and general guidance usually used the guidelines<\/em>\u00a0terminology such as the\u00a0IIAR Compliance Guidelines\u00a0<\/i>and the\u00a0CCPS Guidelines for Safe Process Operations and Maintenance<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Do I have to change my documents if I use the templates?<\/h2>\n

Well, no you never really have<\/strong> to update your program to reflect our changes. That said, Should you? Yes, you should\u00a0make the change whenever you update your program to the latest templates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In mid-february we\u00a0changed every reference to Guideline\u00a0in the example templates to Written Plan.\u00a0This change was made to the Google Drive and logged on\u00a02\/3\/17. Although I have used\u00a0guideline\u00a0for a very long time, it was really just out of habit – it’s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,56,19],"tags":[10,12,18],"class_list":["post-968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-info","category-standardization","category-system-optimization","tag-psm","tag-rmp","tag-standardization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/taocompliance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/taocompliance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/taocompliance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taocompliance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taocompliance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=968"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/taocompliance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":971,"href":"https:\/\/taocompliance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968\/revisions\/971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taocompliance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taocompliance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taocompliance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}