Incident Reporting

Today's article will be all about discussing incident reporting and what it is.  So, what is incident reporting?  Well, according to the site https://www.tru.ca/hsafety/incident_reporting.html , there are two different types of incidents.  The first type of incident results in an injury.  The second type of incident is where there is no injury, but had the potential of causing injury.  This is also called a near miss.  A good example of this that this site provides is in a chemistry lab.  Lets just say that there was an experiment happening in lab that was dealing with highly corrosive substances.  Well, if someone were to drop this beaker of chemicals and it shatters on the ground, but the personnel in the lab were wearing the proper personal protective equipment, also known as PPE, they were not harmed by the substance at all.  This is known as a near miss, because even though there was a potential threat of injury occurring to everyone in that lab where the spill occurred, nobody was injured due to the chemical spill.  Another site, http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/incident+report , has another definition of an incident report.  This site defines an incident report as a written document that describes all of the events and care that have been made for a patient.  You should make sure you file an incident report as soon as possible.  This is also called an accident report.  So, what is so important about making sure you file an incident, or accident report?  Well, documentation is key.  Having everything on file is very important to do in order to make sure that you have proof that you have accomplished or accounted for something.  If you don't report something, then no body will know that you have done something or accounted for it.  It is also especially important when dealing with people's health because to have the health effects and health information of an individual on file can be used as great information if there is a problem, or if medical personnel want to know something about an employee.  This site also defines this incident report as an error or unusual occurrence that must be documented.  The site https://nonprofitrisk.org/tools/workplace-safety/nonprofit/c2/policy.htm says that it important to reports accidents and near misses in order to help locate the reason or the cause of the mishap.  This is very important, because if you know the source of the problem, you can fix it so that it does not happen again.  Also, something that can be very helpful is programs that are designed to teach employees about how to remain safe from hazards in the work place so that it does not happen, if it has been happening repeatedly, or to make sure that it does not happen at all.  Incident reporting is all about solving the problem at hand by documentation.  I hope this article was helpful in providing to you some useful information about what incident reporting is, and also why it can be extremely helpful and useful in the workplace.