This incident register:
An incident register is a formal record of all incidents that occur within an organization. The purpose of an incident register is to document all incidents so that they can be investigated and any lessons from an incident can be learned by staff.
An incident register is a useful tool for identifying trends and improving safety performance within an organization.
Every incident that occurs at a workplace should be investigated to determine exactly how it occurred and identify the contributing factors. It is important to determine an initial diagnosis and what action can be taken to prevent similar incidents.
A person or team should be nominated with the responsibility of undertaking an investigation, as soon as possible. This person or team must be selected based on their training, experience and their knowledge of the workplace and work practices.
Safety-related incidents must be investigated using a thorough investigation methodology, to ensure all contributing factors and the root or system causes are identified. Witness statements and interviews should be taken as soon as possible following an incident unless this is not possible due to a serious condition. Witnesses must be separated (if required) to enable statements to be obtained without influence.
A preliminary incident report should be drafted within 24 hours of an injury and forwarded to management, as soon as possible.
Corrective and preventative actions should be established based on investigation findings and should be actioned as soon as reasonably practicable to prevent a recurrence. All corrective actions must be monitored after implementation to ensure they are effective.
Records of all incident investigations and corrective actions must be retained following best practices and legal obligations. Incident registers and incident reporting forms should be updated with any new information and be retained as ‘documented information.’
This incident register has provisions for the following aspects of an incident:
There are very comprehensive provisions in this register for the subsets of:
Note: The register’s structure is consistent with the Australian standard of 1885.1. Measurement of Occupational Health and Safety Performance.