subject: Investigating An Incident Is Much More Easier Now [print this page] Investigating An Incident Is Much More Easier Now
Distribution of information is another crucial aspect of a best-in-class incident reporting software system. When an incident occurs, and depending on the severity of the incident, there will be people who need to know about it. Perhaps it's the leading hand, shift supervisor, plant manager, site manager, state manager or even the CEO. The system must be able to send the details immediately as they are recorded to the people who need to know, immediately including them as part of the information circle of that incident.
The more information that the system can present at a glance, the easier it is for all people involved to quickly view and understand the details of the incident. They should include:
Incident type (Property, Environment, Near Miss, First Aid, Medical Treatment etc.)
Who was involved, who is reporting the incident, who the incident is reported to and who the witnesses are to the incident Dates and times that reporting occurred
A description of immediate actions taken to make the area or task safer:
When the incident type involves an injury, then an injury report must also be filled in. Many incident reporting software systems also include an injury reporting function. Given the options on the market, there is no reason to consider a system that does not include injury reporting. This injury report must also closely follow the requirements as set out in the Australian Standards.
Investigating an Incident
One of the dangers of an incomplete or disjointed incident reporting system is that investigation of an incident is often postponed sometimes indefinitely. When your incident reporting software includes functionality that enables you to easily assign investigative tasks to the appropriate people, then follows up with automatic reminders, investigations are more likely to be completed. When combined with an automatic email distribution feature, the assigned investigators are also more likely to quickly complete their task, simply because their progress is being monitored by key personnel.
Setting Corrective Actions
Again, incorporating this function into your incident reporting software results in a more fluid and rapid outcome. The ability to enter all actions that need to be taken in order to correct the root cause of the incident will help to reduce the likelihood of incident reoccurrence.
This feature, the ability to ensure that corrective actions are completed before an incident report is closed, is probably the most important feature when it comes to actively improving workplace safety. It helps turn your incident reporting requirement into an effective safety improvement tool.
Meaningful Reports
All the above features amount to a huge pile of data being entered into your incident reporting software system. Not that there's anything wrong with that. To let it sit there idle, however, is a crime against safety. Many companies do utilise this information, but often it requires several people working for a number of days to compile it in a way that is truly useful.
When that data can be automatically compiled into meaningful information and presented in easy to understand graphical reports, it becomes a powerful OHS tool. Furthermore, because of the capabilities of today's software algorithms, data can be transformed into graphical reports in seconds, giving you up-to-the-minute information.
Some of the reporting capabilities you should look for when comparing incident reporting software systems include:
