The insurance inspection, which is a mandatory process, is one method used to assist the State, our insurers and the University in assessing and eliminating unnecessary risk. When the University is notified that an insurance inspection will take place on campus, designated persons within the Finance and Business organization begin to implement prearranged procedures to assure that responsible parties are notified and adequately respond to deficiencies found during the inspection. Individuals from Fire Protection and Facilities, Planning and Design accompany the inspector while he is making his rounds of the campus to gain first hand knowledge of the deficiencies and to immediately begin the process of correcting them, if possible.
Because the process is so voluminous, a computerized tracking system with coded responses has been developed to assist the University in responding to the Department of Insurance. When the University receives the written report as the result of an insurance inspection, the list of discrepancies for which each department is responsible is sent to the respective departments for response by the Fire Protection Division of Public Safety. Responses to each item listed by DOI/IRI are coded with NCSU responses.
Insurance and Risk Management is responsible for completing the report and putting it the final form for signature by the Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities before forwarding to DOI. The University's goal is to create a plan for correcting the violations, complete the written response and forward it to the Department of Insurance.
Major Discrepancies Found During DOI Insurance Inspections
In many instances the discrepancies found during DOI inspections can be corrected with very little expense by the departments themselves. Most of these discrepancies are of our own making and should not even appear on the report as they are common sense kinds of violations that we all know should not occur. To illustrate this point, we have prepared a list of ten most frequent violations seen in NCSU insurance inspection reports. These are:
2) Improper storage of flammables and chemicals.
3) Mechanical rooms used for storage.
4) Improper use of hallways, corridors and stairwells as a location for vending machines, storage and/or office space.
5) Improper use of deadbolt locks on exterior doors.
6) Fire doors chocked open.
7) Inadequate housekeeping.
8) Electrical panels blocked and/or missing junction box covers.
9) Compressed gas cylinders needing to be chained or otherwise secured.
10) Improper electrical wiring modifications done by unlicensed electrician.
Support Loss Prevention At NCSU
As you can see, in these 10 categories educating our students employees can easily help NC State avoid these violations. By watching for and working students and employees, we can correct many of these violations as soon as they happen, or better yet, prevent them from happening in the first place.
By working together we can eliminate these ten violations from the report and this would go a long way toward reducing the total number of discrepancies on the annual insurance reports, probably by more than 50%. It would also create an environment at NC State that is more compliant with the regulations and safety practices.
Please join with us to accomplish this goal.
1) Extensive and improper use of extension cords.
