Safety Reporting Hotline

A formal reporting system is where the observer fills in the report form and posts it in the near miss box or hands it in to the supervisor who then enters it into the system. The formal system is the main reporting method, but requires access to a form, or a computer terminal, or a safety reporting hotline.  

Informal reporting is when near miss incidents are reported verbally without filling in the form or online report. This could be an employee who tells his supervisor about a safety deviation. It could involve an employee telling another employee about a certain situation. Observations discussed at safety meetings and tailgate safety sessions would fall into the informal category. 

All safety meetings and pretask talks should begin with an incident recall session as part of the informal reporting process. The discussions from incident and accident recall sessions are informal reports and form an invaluable part of the NEMIRR reporting system. 

It is important to emphasize that risks be ranked on the normal expected loss approach and not the worst case or best case scenario. Often, emotions slant the rankings because it s a safety issue.  

A central collection area should be established where all reports are collected. This is normally an administrative function even thongh, in some organizations, a safety coordinator is allocated the responsibility of administrating the collection, analysis, and submission of near miss incident reports. Both formal and informal incident reports should be colleeted and tabulated on a simple spreadsheet. 

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In addition, there are some countries like the United States, which allow for consumers to report AEs, whereas other countries only allow healthcare professionals to make such AE reports. This can result in higher numbers of reports, though the information that is received may not be completely valuable or beneficial when searching for safety signals. Consumer reports can also be increased as a result of direct consumer advertising, especially when consumer hotlines are published. 

The reporting of safety issues must be made easy, simple, and confidential. Many organizations have a telephone number that is a hotline to a recording system. Employees can dial the number in secrecy and report unsafe conditions or acts or other items concerning safety. This gives employees confidence that they can be a part of the safety system without repercussion. Computer terminals can have an input spreadsheet where the issue is reported and submitted to a central receiving office that distributes the item to the correct department or person concerned. 

The respondent went on to explain how his railroad was trying to deal with the problem We devote a lot of resources to identify [safety] problems. He told us that they had hired an independent company to set up a 1-800 hotline for employees to report accidents, assuring the workers confidentiality. 

The company also instituted shock awareness meetings where senior management added energy to the first ten minutes of each of the three shifts by spontaneously addressing their department on a current topic requiring urgent attention. There was also a phone hotline for anonymous reporting on a safety and security matter. 

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