Major incident management

Hodgetts TJ and Porter C (2004). Triage. In Major Incident Management System (MIMS ), p. 30. London, UK BMJ Books. 

The Faculty of PreHospital Care of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh has established a Diploma in Major Incident Management. The first diet of this examination will be in 2010. Information regarding the examination will be available from the examinations office at the College. 

Fig. 2.3 Cordons and areas at an incident scene. Reprinted with permission from Hodgetts T, Porter C (2002). Major incident management system, 2nd edn. London, BMJ Books.

It should by now be clear that these attacks will more often than not produce a large number of casualties, many with severe and complex injuries. Effective major incident management is therefore essential to limit the damage so far as is possible, and a good triage system will be the mainstay of this. 

Hodgetts T, Porter C Major Incident Management System, London, 2005, BMJ Books. 

For a major incident investigation using a comprehensive root cause analysis system, teams will be formed to acquire information relevant to determine the structure and analyze the causes in depth. In addition to evaluations of the immediate causes, imderlying causes are likely to be evaluated by investigations in areas such as safety and quality management. Both paper- and computer-based systems will be used to acquire and record information for subsequent detailed analyses. 

Management systems for chemical process safety are comprehensive sets of policies, procedures, and practices designed to ensure that barriers to major incidents are in place, in use, and effective. The management systems serve to integrate process safety concepts into ongoing activities of everyone involved in operations— from the chemical process operator to the chief executive officer. 

Develop a definition for a major incident, and compare it to CCPS s definition. See CCPS, Plant Guidelines for Technical Management of Chemical Process Safety (1992), p. 236. 

However unfortunate, drilling personnel have been historically directly connected with major incidents within the petroleum industry on numerous occasions and the impression, consciously or unconsciously still remains. On the other hand, it is very rare or non-existent that a loss prevention professional is promoted to the ranks of senior management, even though they may have been keenly conscientious in maintaining a high economic return to the company by the prevention of catastrophic accidents. 

Bhopal and a series of other major incidents underscored the need for increased attention to process safety management OSHA began to develop a standard that would incorporate these principles. A proposed standard was published in 1990. Additionally, the Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) of 1990 required OSHA to promulgate a standard to protect employees from the hazards associated with releases of highly hazardous chemicals, including reactive chemicals. 

Criteria for lagging metrics should be set below the level that describes catastrophic events. While it is important to capture those catastrophic incidents, it is equally, if not even more, valuable to define such metrics to capture less-severe incidents, including the failure of the process safety elements, which protect against or limit the consequences of a major incident (HSE, 2006). Lagging metrics that represent failures of a less-severe nature are valuable in identifying potential hazards before a catastrophic event occurs. Such information helps management understand issues at an early stage when they may be more easily addressed. 

Incident management quickly identifies and responds to incidents (crashes, breakdowns, caigo spills) that occur on area freeways or major arteries... 

Many of the improvements in safety and risk management have resulted from changes made following a major incident. A summary of some of them is provided in Table 1.1. 

PSM is a program oriented toward the management and control of processes that handle large quantities of hazardous and flammable chemicals. The focus of PSM is on the prevention of major incidents in facilities that typically employ very sophisticated technology. 

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