Assessing the service provided by an institutional radiation safety survey program.

Routine radiation safety surveys are a required part of every institutional radiation protection program. Although mandated by regulation, surveys are really performed to help clinicians and researchers establish and maintain radiologically-safe working and learning environments. In some cases, however, the priorities established by a radiation protection program may not coincide with the needs perceived by the institution's workers, leading to possible alienation, dissatisfaction, and non-compliance with policies, procedures, and regulations. To determine if a typical survey program was perceived as providing a good or valued service to workers, a simple questionnaire was created and utilized for a 6-mo period The results obtained from this targeted assessment tool indicate that the radiation safety survey services were perceived as useful by most of the workers. In addition, the actual process of comment solicitation provided a positive feedback mechanism from the service recipients to the radiation safety staff, managers, committee members, and institution administrators.