14.1. New. INCIDENT REPORTING AND INVESTIGATION

14.1.1. New. PURPOSE

To record and classify work-related injuries or illnesses in accordance with the requirements of the Accident Compensation Act 1985 (Vic) and to record and classify other Environment Health and Safety incidents.

To provide a process for reported incidents to be risk assessed and where necessary investigated to determine the root causes of the incident.

To provide a process for the monitoring of planned corrective actions to prevent or reduce the risk of re-occurrence of reported incidents.

14.1.2. New. SCOPE

This procedure applies to all staff, students, contractors and visitors at all of the University of Melbourne's campuses and each of the University's controlled entities.

This procedure applies to work-related injuries or illnesses and other EHS incidents including:

• Incidents or near misses

• Injuries or illnesses

• Environmental damage

• Property loss or damage

• Theft

14.1.3. New. DEFINITIONS

Dangerous Occurrence

An incident that exposes a person to immediate risk to health or safety. Immediate risk is where that likelihood is present at the time of the incident occurring. It includes any situation which seriously endangers or threatens the health or safety of a person.

Corrective actions

The actions taken after an incident to prevent or reduce the risk of the incident reoccurring.

Preventative actions

The actions taken prior to an incident to prevent or reduce the risk of the incident occurring.

Incident

Any unplanned event resulting in, or having a potential for injury, ill health, damage or other loss. (AS/NZS 4801: 2001).

Near miss

An incident that did not result in harm.

High consequence incidents

• Incidents (including Dangerous Occurrences) that require notification to a regulator; or

• Incidents that are assessed to be Very High risk.

Work-related Injury

Any physical or mental injury and, without limiting the generality of that definition, includes-

• industrial deafness;

• a disease contracted by a worker in the course of the worker's employment (whether at, or away from, the place of employment);

• a recurrence, aggravation, acceleration, exacerbation or deterioration of any pre-existing injury or disease [Accident Compensation Act: 1985 (Vic)].

Illness

Any work-related illness, including disease.

Disease

Any physical or mental ailment, disorder, defect or morbid condition whether of sudden or gradual development.

The aggravation, acceleration, exacerbation or recurrence of any pre-existing disease. (Accident Compensation Act: 1985)

Environmental Damage

An unplanned event that causes harm to the environment through the generation of environmental noise, environmental release or excessive resource consumption.

Behavioural Causes (Substandard Practices)

An act that puts someone or something in a position of exposure to harm.

Physical Causes (Substandard Conditions)

A physical condition that puts someone or something in a position of exposure to harm.

Management Systems (Procedural) Deficiencies

An absence or failure of a procedure or process to adequately control substandard practices and substandard conditions.

Medical Treatment

Treatment by a registered medical practitioner within the meaning of the Medical Practice Act 1994 (Vic).

14.1.4. New. PROCEDURE

14.1.4.1. New. Incident Response

Sequence of immediate response actions:

• Protect your health and safety

• Protect the health and safety of others

• If necessary, provide aid to any injured persons involved in the incident

• If necessary, call for first aider

• If necessary, call emergency services

• If applicable, call campus security to coordinate access for emergency services on campus

• If applicable, take essential action to make the site safe or to prevent a further incident.

After injured persons have been assisted:

Isolate the incident site or take essential action to prevent a further incident.

Do not disturb the incident site any further until it is confirmed that the incident does not require notification to a regulatory authority or until an inspector has authorised the disturbance of the site.

Upon confirmation that site can be disturbed, site restoration or repair work may commence and the necessary arrangements for the site to be made permanently safe may commence.

Health and Safety Representative Involvement

A Health and Safety Representative for a designated work group may inspect the workplace immediately following an incident occurring.

14.1.4.2. New. Incident Reporting

The General Manager, Environment Health & Safety (EHS) shall develop and maintain a register of injuries in accordance with the requirements of the Accident Compensation Act 1985 (Vic).

The General Manager EHS shall publish on the EHS website the instructions for reporting EHS incidents.

The instructions shall include details on how to report incidents electronically and use hard-copy Incident Report forms.

http://www.pb.unimelb.edu.au/ehs/ehs/incidentreporting/

Staff, students, contractors and visitors shall report any EHS incident and/or hazard to their local supervisor or the manager of the work area as soon as reasonably practicable.

High Consequence incidents should be reported immediately and other incidents should be reported within 24 hours of becoming aware of the incident, injury or illness.

Staff^, students#, contractors and visitors shall complete an incident report form for any EHS incident, including:

• Injuries or illnesses^

• Incidents or near misses

• Property loss or damage

• Environmental damage

• Theft

that occurred at a University of Melbourne campus, a University of Melbourne controlled entity or whilst undertaking any University-sanctioned activity.

• ^ Note for staff: You must notify your supervisor of any work-related injury or illness within 30 days of becoming aware of it. If you do not, you may put at risk an entitlement (if any) to make a worker's compensation claim

• #Note for students: If you are also a staff member at the University, then it is necessary to consider your status at the time when the incident occurred. A simple test is:

  • If you were performing an activity on a paid basis for the University at the time of the incident, then your status is Staff.

  • If you were performing an activity in pursuit of study at the time of the incident, then your status is Student.

The person completing the incident report form shall forward the incident report form to their local supervisor or the manager of the work area for acknowledgement of the Incident Report and further action.

Upon submitting an electronic Incident Report (via Themis) an email shall be sent to the person reporting the incident and (if applicable, the injured person) acknowledging the entry of the Incident Report. The person submitting an electronic Incident Report and (if applicable, the injured person) shall receive further information about the progress of the Incident Report via email. This shall include:

• Acknowledgement of receipt of the Incident Report by the Supervisor

• Finalisation of the Incident Report by the Supervisor

• Close out of the Incident Report by the assigned EHS Adviser.

Upon receiving the Incident Report (via Themis) the local supervisor shall, as soon as reasonably practicable, identify and record:

• Immediate actions taken to assist any persons injured during the incident

• Immediate actions taken to prevent re-occurrence of the incident

• If a copy of the incident report has been provided to the HSR

• If a copy of the incident report has been provided to Asset Services

• Severity of the incident

• Likelihood of the incident occurring or re-occurring

• Resultant risk rating of the incident

• If an on-site incident investigation has been completed

• If applicable, the members of the incident investigation team

• Planned actions to prevent reoccurrence of the incident

• Due date for completion of planned corrective actions.

The supervisor shall also assess if any University employee injured as a result of the incident took time off work.

The supervisor shall inform the University Injury Management Unit if injured University employee(s) took time off work.

If the risk rating is medium, high or very high, then the local supervisor shall ensure that a formal incident investigation is completed. The formal investigation shall identify and include:

• Behavioural causes (substandard practices) that led to the incident occurring

• Management systems (procedural) deficiencies that led to the behavioural cases (substandard practices)

• Physical causes (substandard conditions) that led to the incident occurring

• Management systems (procedural) deficiencies that led to the physical causes (substandard conditions).

14.1.4.3. New. Incidents Requiring Notification to WorkSafe Victoria

The following incidents require notification to WorkSafe Victoria:

• the death of a person; or

• a person requiring medical treatment within 48 hours of exposure to a substance; or

• a person requiring immediate treatment as an in-patient in a hospital; or

• a person requiring immediate medical treatment for-

  (i) the amputation of any part of his or her body; or

  (ii) a serious head injury; or

  (iii) a serious eye injury; or

  (iv) the separation of his or her skin from an underlying tissue (such as de-gloving or scalping); or

  (v) electric shock; or

  (vi) a spinal injury; or

  (vii) the loss of a bodily function; or

  (viii) serious lacerations

• an incident that exposes a person in the immediate vicinity to an immediate risk to the person's health or safety through-

  (i) the collapse, overturning, failure or malfunction of, or damage to, any plant that the Occupational Health & Safety Regulations 2007 (Vic) prescribe must not be used unless the plant is licensed or registered; or

  (ii) the collapse or failure of an excavation or of any shoring supporting an excavation; or

  (iii) the collapse or partial collapse of all or part of a building or structure; or

  (iv) an implosion, explosion or fire; or

  (v) the escape, spillage or leakage of any substance including dangerous goods; or

  (vi) the fall or release from a height of any plant, substance or object.

The local supervisor, upon being informed of an incident within the scope of requiring notification to WorkSafe, shall immediately inform and request advice from the on-call EHS Adviser by contacting the Parkville Campus Security Control on:

• 03 8344 6666 or

• extension 46666

The local supervisor shall ensure that the site of incident is not disturbed until authorised, as described in Section 14.1.4.1.

The on-call EHS Adviser shall assess the incident details and determine if the incident requires notification to WorkSafe Victoria.

If necessary, the on-call EHS Adviser shall notify WorkSafe Victoria of the incident via telephone and complete and send the written WorkSafe notification form to WorkSafe Victoria.

14.1.4.4. New. Incident Investigation

The local supervisor shall ensure formal incident investigation is completed for EHS incidents & near misses and illness & injury if the risk rating is medium, high or very high. The formal investigation shall identify and include:

• Behavioural causes (substandard practices) that led to the incident occurring

• Management systems (procedural) deficiencies that led to the behavioural causes (substandard practices)

• Physical causes (substandard conditions) that led to the incident occurring

• Management systems (procedural) deficiencies that led to the (physical causes) substandard conditions.

The supervisor should arrange for the incident investigation to commence within 48 hours or as soon as reasonable practicable after the supervisor is informed of the incident.

Incident Investigation (S4) forms are available from:

http://www.pb.unimelb.edu.au/ehs/ehs/incidentreporting/

If a formal incident investigation is necessary, then the local supervisor is required to establish an incident investigation team. The incident investigation team may include the following participants:

• Local supervisor or manager (Team Leader)

• Persons involved in the incident and witnesses

• Health and Safety Representative (if reasonably practicable)

• EHS Adviser or local EHS Coordinator.

The local supervisor or manager should act as the incident investigation team leader and at least one team member should be trained in University of Melbourne Incident Investigation methodology.

The incident investigation team shall establish the facts of circumstances leading up to the incident, during the incident and post-incident by gathering and considering information including:

• identified hazards

• effectiveness of the existing risk assessments

• effective of the existing risk controls

• evidence from the site from inspections and observations, photos and sketches

• discussions with persons involved (or those aware of possible contributing factors) and statements from witnesses

• materials, equipment chemicals and substances involved

• exact location and environmental conditions including lighting, weather, ventilation, floor conditions

• exact time, date and other time factors, eg. shift changes, rest breaks, task duration, work time frames and deadlines

• unusual sequence of events and actual sequence of events, before, during and after the incident.

The Incident Investigation team shall recommend corrective actions to eliminate or reduce the risk of reoccurrence of a similar incident so far as is reasonably practicable.

The supervisor shall ensure that appropriate corrective actions are implemented or that the recommended corrective actions are escalated to a person responsible for the implementation of the corrective actions.

The supervisor shall ensure that when implementing corrective actions, the local personnel affected are consulted about the corrective actions.

Distribution of the incident investigation report

The Incident Investigation team leader shall provide a copy of the completed incident investigation report to the local EHS Committee and the EHS Adviser for the Faculty (Budget Division).

14.1.4.5. New. Monitoring Implementation of Corrective Actions

The supervisor shall monitor progress of implementation of corrective actions and record when implementation of corrective actions is finalised.

14.1.4.6. New. Reviewing Effectiveness of Corrective Actions

The Local and Faculty (Budget Division) EHS committees shall:

• review incident investigation reports submitted by Incident Investigation Team leaders;

• nominate a person to review and report back to the committee on the effectiveness of the implemented control measures.

14.1.4.7. New. Reporting High Consequence Incidents

The GM EHS shall report high consequence incidents to:

• Dean or Vice-Principal of the relevant Faculty (Budget Division)

• Occupational Health and Safety Committee (for OHS incidents, injuries and illness)

• Risk Management Committee

• University Council.

14.1.5. New. REFERENCES

Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic)

Accident Compensation Act 1985 (Vic)

Environment Protection Act 1970 (Vic)

Victorian WorkCover Authority, Claims Manual, Version: 1.0, 2005

WorkSafe Victoria, Guide to Incident Notification, 1st Edition, 2005

Incident Reporting Flow Chart

Australian Standard AS 1885.1:1990

Australian Standard AS/NZS 4801:2001

National Occupational Health and Safety Commission, Codes for Mechanism of Injury

14.1.6. New. DOCUMENT CONTROL

 Table 69: Document Control: 14.1.New. Incident Reporting & Investigation

Date: 22 May 2009  Version: 1.1  Authorised by: OHSC on 31 October 2006, RMC on 24 October 2006. Urgent changes authorised by General Manager EHS on 18 May 2009.  Next Review: 22 May 2012   © The University of Melbourne - Uncontrolled when printed

Created: January 2000
Last Modified: 13 August 2009
Authorised by: General Manager, Environment Health and Safety Unit.