{"id":1112,"date":"2014-04-08T15:54:12","date_gmt":"2014-04-08T15:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/allrisktraining.com\/?p=1112"},"modified":"2014-04-08T16:38:54","modified_gmt":"2014-04-08T16:38:54","slug":"importance-near-miss-reporting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allrisktraining.com\/allrisktraining\/osha\/importance-near-miss-reporting\/","title":{"rendered":"Importance of Near Miss Reporting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"near-miss-reporting\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Importance of Near Miss Reporting<\/span><\/h1>\n

Near miss reporting should be a part of every employer\u2019s safety program.\u00a0 Near miss reporting is a proactive leading indicator (leading indicators described here in our previous article<\/a>) of your safety management system.\u00a0 What is a near miss?\u00a0 A basic definition would be an event that does not result in an injury or damage.\u00a0 According to this OSHA article<\/a>, one of their Safety and Health Management Program Fact Sheets, they describe near miss more precisely.<\/p>\n

NEAR MISS<\/strong> – Near misses describe incidents where no property was damaged and no personal injury sustained, but where, given a slight shift in time or position, damage and\/or injury easily could have occurred.<\/i><\/p>\n

So then, what is an incident?\u00a0 In the same fact sheet<\/a>, OSHA defines\u2026<\/p>\n

INCIDENT<\/strong> – An incident is an unplanned, undesired event that adversely affects completion of a task.<\/i><\/p>\n

While the descriptor “near miss” is the OSHA term, some safety programs refer to near miss as near hits or close calls.\u00a0 Whatever you prefer to call them, the data collected from near misses is vital for your safety program.\u00a0 You want employees empowered to identify conditions and behaviors that could cause injury or damage and correct those conditions\/behaviors before the incident happens.<\/p>\n

Why do you want employees to collect this information? \u00a0 All of the successful<\/em> safety management programs<\/strong> allow employees to have ownership and accountability for what happens in their area, and that ownership\/accountability grants the empowerment employees need to report and correct hazards.<\/p>\n

Is it a near miss if someone trips over an extension cord lying on the floor but doesn’t fall?\u00a0 Is the extension cord lying on the ground, itself, a near miss?\u00a0 Many management teams struggle with these same questions.\u00a0 An extension cord lying on the floor is a hazardous condition.\u00a0 It does not become a near miss until someone\u2019s actions are involved.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s think about the example of an extension cord lying on the floor.\u00a0 While it may be hazardous condition, it will not cause an injury to an employee until the employee interacts with it, such as stepping over it.\u00a0 Maybe employees are able to step over a cord a dozen times without any consequences.\u00a0 However, the one time that someone drags their foot and stumbles but doesn\u2019t fall, now you have a near miss.\u00a0 If someone chooses not to report the near miss, either from fear of embarrassment or fear of getting in trouble, then the possibility of another employee falling and actually hurting themselves is still a potential.<\/p>\n

If the near miss is reported, you now have the ability to communicate and correct the situation and similar situations.\u00a0 Once management has this information, an investigation and corrective actions need to be discussed and addressed.\u00a0 These investigations do not need to be lengthy, but should follow your investigation and corrective action program.\u00a0 A cord cover, taping the cord to the floor or moving the work so the cord doesn\u2019t cross a walking path could make the difference.\u00a0 Taking the extra 5 minutes (probably less than 5 minutes) to secure a cord could prevent a costly incident.\u00a0 This is why educating and empowering employees to report and correct, even the seemingly minor incidents, is crucial to your safety program.<\/p>\n

Workforcesafety.com has a simple form (click here for form<\/a>) that you can have your employees fill out to report near misses. \u00a0Once they are reported, management has the responsibility to investigate and ensure that corrective actions were taken.<\/p>\n

Understand that training your employees to recognize hazardous conditions along with the behavior that could cause an injury is the information you want them to capture.\u00a0\u00a0 Reporting near misses can provide a positive leading indicator of your safety management system and a proactive step to reduce injuries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Importance of Near Miss Reporting Near miss reporting should be a part of every employer\u2019s safety program.\u00a0 Near miss reporting is a proactive leading indicator (leading indicators described here in our previous article) of your safety management system.\u00a0 What is a near miss?\u00a0 A basic definition would be an event that does not result in an injury or damage.\u00a0 According […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,10],"tags":[39,40,41],"class_list":["post-1112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-osha","category-safety-in-the-workplace","tag-importance-of-near-miss-reporting","tag-near-miss-reporting","tag-what-is-a-near-miss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allrisktraining.com\/allrisktraining\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allrisktraining.com\/allrisktraining\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allrisktraining.com\/allrisktraining\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allrisktraining.com\/allrisktraining\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allrisktraining.com\/allrisktraining\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1112"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/allrisktraining.com\/allrisktraining\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1134,"href":"https:\/\/allrisktraining.com\/allrisktraining\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1112\/revisions\/1134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allrisktraining.com\/allrisktraining\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allrisktraining.com\/allrisktraining\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allrisktraining.com\/allrisktraining\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}