Why do incident reports

Thus they themselves provide relatively little information about the possibility of future incidents. In contrast, the more and the higher frequency of incidents, the greater insights they give of human error, systems failure, site comparisons, regulatory weaknesses etc. They provide a reminder of possible hazards.

Reporting them provide a way to monitor potential problems and root causes as they recur. The documentation of these problems and root causes increases the likelihood that repeating failures will be noticed and corrected before they develop to more serious incidents. Everyone can see that their concerns are treated seriously and are acted upon by the organisation. In the end the culture of improvement can be created with two-way communication and everyone being part of it.

The gathered data can be used for comparisons both within and between organisations and industries. Even though the incident categories and types differ between industries, verticals and even functions, the habit of being aware in the field and documenting the observations is the same. The average cost of occupational accident ranges from thousands to tens of thousands euros between industries and countries.

Each organisational culture is a set of habits, values, thoughts and beliefs. In organisation-level development areas such as health, safety, quality and environment, the habits are the keystones that affect the culture the most.

If you want to create safety culture, start collecting safety observations. If you want to create culture of quality improvement, start collecting quality observations.

If you want to raise environmental awareness, start collecting environmental observations. It's critical that in all workplaces staff are empowered to report incidents that happen using an incident report form. It allows the organisation to properly investigate and establish checks, procedures and implement risk controls in response to what has happened.

What happens when you don't report incidents? If you don't report incidents that happen, the same type of incident might happen again. The opportunity to analyse what happened, how, why, what could have stopped it and the root causes and factors involved are all lost if the full details of the incident are not recorded. No matter how small an incident is, everything should be reported.

The small stuff can prevent the big stuff from happening! Importance of incident reporting Generally, an incident report is a necessary process for the success of any organization's health and safety programs. The management should ensure that every worker knows how to compile and submit an incident report form. Any incident that involves worker safety should be recorded, no matter how insignificant it may seem.

An investigation of what happened should be undertaken as soon as possible after the incident occurs and after any injured persons have been taken care of. The report that is generated as a result should provide a full account of what took place. Incident reports indicate that there have been lapses in the workplace's safety protocols. Hence, reporting and documenting an incident is very important to identify the risks, failures and hazards that led to the incident.

Analyzing these reports can help organizations implement necessary changes, improvements, and corrective actions to prevent future incidents. An incident report will help:. Four main types of incidents should be reported in an organization:. In addition to a description of the incident, the report should include :.

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