Investigating Near Misses Is Key To Workers Compensation Cost Reduction
A near miss is an unplanned event that did not result in injury, illness, or damage but had the potential to do so. Only a fortunate break in the chain of events prevented an injury, fatality or damage from occurring. Although unsafe acts or behavior are usually the initiating event, a faulty process or system invariably permits or compounds the harm, and is the focus of improvement. Other familiar terms for these events is a "close call", or in the case of moving objects, "near collision".
Employees often comment after an employee is actually injured on the job that they had also experience a “close call” themselves involving the exact chain of events. In fact, in many organizations the ratio of “near misses” to actual employee injuries is 15:1. Therefore, it only stands to reason that if the organization can understand and reduce its frequency of “near misses” the frequency of workers injuries should drop dramatically as well.
Understanding and analyzing “near misses” is all about determining the “root cause” of the incident and taking the appropriate measure to reduce its frequency of happening again. Unlike worker injury claim analysis, which has a severity component, “near miss” analysis is all about incident frequency. Because it is a valuable indicator of potential injuries to come, it is an excellent technique for reducing insured workers compensation costs as well as indirect workers compensation costs. It is also highly recommended by OSHA.
In addition, a key to a successful “near miss” investigation program is actually getting the event reported in the first place. It is all about winning the hearts and minds of the employees which, in turn, requires that the organization convince its employees that it is sincerely committed to preventing work-related injuries.
The CompEraser system is loaded with all the tools, forms and checklists you must have to identify and analyze your workers compensation near misses. For more information go to www.comperaser.com.
