Incident Reporting
Page Contents
Include: Summary | Reporting of accidents and incidents | Notifiable Incidents | Incidents involving human or primate blood or products | Corrective action strategies | WorkCover | Damaged equipment
Summary
Staff, students, contractors and visitors in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and environs should complete an incident report form for any EHS incident, including:
- Injuries or illnesses
- Incidents or near misses
- Property loss or damage
- Environmental damage
- Theft
The Department is required to keep a register of all accidents, however slight, that result or have the potential to result in an injury. This assists in tracking any unsafe practices or situations that may occur in the Department. Additionally, the Department is required to ensure that Corrective Actions are put into place to prevent repetition of an accident.
A flowchart which summarises the content of this page is available.
Reporting of Accidents and Incidents
An accident is defined as: "any unplanned event that gives rise to, or has the potential to cause, injury to a person or damage to property". This includes a "near miss".
All accidents must be reported immediately to the laboratory supervisor and the Departmental Manager/ Safety Officer. Failure to report an injury may result in problems with subsequent WorkCover claims.
Reporting of all accidents, no matter how trivial, serves two main purposes:
- It protects the injured person if complications subsequently arise, e.g. A cut finger becomes infected after some time has elapsed.
- It enables problem areas and operations to be identified, so that corrective measures can be taken before a serious accident occurs.
All accidents or “near misses” must be documented through the University’s Incident Reporting procedure. An Incident Report (S3) form must be completed via Themis. Students, contractors and visitors without access to Themis may use a hardcopy Incident Report (S3) form. For further information see:
http://www.pb.unimelb.edu.au/ehs/ehs/incidentreporting/
Alternatively, hardcopy forms can be obtained from the Photocopy Room 512.
When an Incident Report (S3) form has been completed, a copy must be given to Jen in Room 5.11. This serves as notification to the Departmental Manager. A copy should also be kept by the work group. Note that an Incident Report (S3) form completed in Themis must be printed at the time of completion. It is not possible to go back later and print a copy of the form.
All Incident Report (S3) forms submitted to Jen must include a Corrective Action Strategy (see below).
Notifiable Incidents
What is a Notifiable Incident?
Notifiable Incidents include, but are not limited to, incidents which:
- result in death or serious injury
- cause any injury that requires treatment at a Hospital Accident/ Emergency Department
- cause any injury that requires medical treatment within 48 hours of the incident
- result in exposure to potentially life threatening situations/ chemicals.
For more information refer to Safety Bulletin 01-07 “Serious Injury and Accident Notification”, which can be found at:
http://www.pb.unimelb.edu.au/ehs/ehs/hazard_alerts/Safety_Bulletin_01_07_Serious_Incident.pdf
What to do immediately after a Notifiable Incident
DO NOT CLEAN UP – PRESERVE THE ACCIDENT SCENE
If an incident is Notifiable, it must be reported immediately by contacting the on-call EHS Adviser via the Parkville Campus Security Control Room on (03) 8344 6666. These incidents may require notification to WorkSafe Victoria by the EHS Unit. If deemed notifiable, the accident site should not be cleaned up until after the University EHS Advisor has confirmed that it can be disturbed. If the site must be cleaned because it poses an immediate threat, then photographs should be taken as evidence.
An Incident Report (S3) form must be submitted within 24 hours of becoming aware of the incident, injury, or illness. Additionally, Notifiable Incidents should be investigated and all details recorded using Incident Investigation (S4) and Witness’ Record of Events (S5) forms. See “Corrective Action Strategies” below for more details.
Incidents involving Human or Primate Blood or Products
If contact with HUMAN or PRIMATE BLOOD or PRODUCTS has occurred, the procedures on form L10, “Safe work procedure for exposure to human blood and human products” must be followed. This form is available at:
http://www.mdhs.unimelb.edu.au/environment_health_and_safety/laboratory_safety
Corrective Action Strategies
Once an Incident Report (S3) form has been completed in Themis, the nominated supervisor is required to complete two screens of information (Incident Response, and Incident Investigation & Classification). These screens assist the supervisor, employee, and health & safety representatives (if applicable) to develop a Corrective Action Strategy.
Development of a Corrective Action Strategy should include:
- an onsite investigation
- identification of any sub-standard practices/ conditions or procedural deficiencies
- determination of the risk of re-occurrence (low, medium, high); and, identification and implementation of Corrective Actions to reduce the risk of re-occurrence.
A Corrective Action Strategy may be further developed on the hard copy Incident Report (S3) form given to Jen.
For serious non-notifiable incidents, the Laboratory Supervisor should consider the need for an on-site incident investigation. If an incident investigation is deemed necessary, an Incident Investigation (S4) form should be completed and the investigation should commence as soon as reasonably practicable after the supervisor is informed of the incident. For all serious incidents, any information from witnesses should be documented on a Witness’ Record of Events (S5) form. Incident Investigation (S4) and Witness’ Record of Events (S5) forms are available from:
http://www.pb.unimelb.edu.au/ehs/ehs/incidentreporting/
Evidence of completion of the Corrective Actions must be submitted to Jen in Room 5.11 within 1-2 weeks of an incident. A copy should also be kept by the work group. An audit of the work group will be conducted if the Departmental Safety Committee does not receive a completed Corrective Action Strategy.
WorkCover
If you need medical attention or require time off work relating to a workplace injury, you will be required to fill in a WorkCover claim form which you can obtain from the Department Manager.
If you fill out a WorkCover claim form, please do it as accurately as possible. Vague descriptions of events will only lead to delays within the Department and the University EHS Unit.
Damaged Equipment
If equipment has become damaged or is suspected to be faulty, tag it with a "TAG OUT" label. Refer to Departmental Standard Operating Procedure “SOP002 Departmental Tagout (Danger Tag) Procedure” for more information. Complete an equipment repair form, which can be found at http:
www.microbiol.unimelb.edu.au/staff/ehs/forms/repair.rtf