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Policies and Procedures

Incident, Injury and Hazard Reporting

  • 1. Procedure statement

    The Royal Children's Hospital (RCH) is committed to the provision of a safe and healthy work environment for all employees, contractors and visitors.

    RCH will maintain records of all hazards, near misses, incidents and injuries for the purposes of minimising risk of injury and ill-health or the recurrence of an incident. Accordingly, all staff are expected to report hazards, near misses and incidents and managers are expected to address these in consultation with staff. 

    In doing so, this will ensure that RCH complies with the requirements of the Occupational Health & Safety Regulations 2017, the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 and the Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2013 (WIRC Act).. 

    2. Persons affected

    All staff and visitors.

    3. Definition of terms

    Hazard:  something that has the potential to injure or harm people, property and equipment

    Incident: an event that has the potential to or does lead to an injury or damage to property and equipment as result of losing control of a hazard

    Near miss: any unplanned incidents that occurred at the workplace which, although not resulting in any injury or disease, had the potential to do so

    Notifiable Incident: an incident for which you are legally required to notify Worksafe Victoria. Incidents that must be reported include those that result in: 

    • death
    • a person needing medical treatment within 48 hours of being exposed to a substance
    • a person needing immediate treatment as an in-patient at a hospital
    • a person needing immediate medical treatment for one of the following injuries: amputation, serious head injury or serious eye injury, removal of skin (example: de-gloving/ scalping) electric shock, spinal injury, loss of a bodily function, serious lacerations (example: requiring stitching or other medical treatment). 

    VHIMS: Victorian Health Incident Management System (formerly known as RiskMan); aN intranet-based incident record system.

    4. Responsibility

    Employee

    • Report any hazard, near miss, incident or injury to their manager.
    • Report all hazards, near misses, incidents or injury via VHIMS

    Health and Safety Representative

    • To assist the manager and consult with employees within the designated work group with regard to incident investigation and risk control
    Head of Department/Unit Manager
    • Respond to hazard reports
    • Investigate near misses and incidents
    • Close all hazard, near miss and incidents reported via VHIMS with 30 days
      • Consult with the Health and Safety Representative with regard to incident investigation and risk control
      • Assist the injured/ill employee and seek first aid medical attention if appropriate.
      • Record hazards identified,near misses and incidents
      • In the event of a serious incident, refer to the Incident Notification Fact sheet which provides a step by step guide on how to report the incident to WorkSafe Victoria
      • Whenever required, will liaise with WHS team with respect to early intervention and return to work strategies
      • Ensure compliance with return to work plan (See RCH Procedure:- " Rehabilitation - Work-Related Injury" for details)
      Workplace Health and Safety Team
      • Provide support to department managers with risk control and injury management
      • Retain records of notifiable incidents
        Injury Management Coordinator
        • Activate early intervention strategies
        • Support injured staff in achieving timely return to appropriate work
        • Support managers in achieving timely return of injured staff to appropriate work
        • Liaison with the RCH Workers Compensation Agent
        • Records maintenance
        • Preparation of incident data summaries
        • Conduct a periodic claim review

        5. Procedure

        Hazard Reporting
        • Hazards identified during day to day activity must be reported to the appropriate manager. If the hazard can be remedied immediately, the manager should take appropriate action in consultation with the Health and Safety Representative.
        • If a hazard requires greater investigation and the sourcing of risk controls, this should be recorded by the manager or the reporting staff member within VHIMS and the proposed risk controls identified in consultation with the Health and Safety Representative.
        • Hazards identified during formal inspections should be recorded with an action plan on the inspections checklist (see WHS web site)
        Near Miss and Incident Reporting

        All near miss / incidents should be recorded in VHIMS by the manager or the reporting staff member

        If a person has been injured, the need for first aid should be assessed and action taken as appropriate. Managers should follow the Early Intervention Guide, and contact their relevant Injury Management Coordinator if the staff member requires time off work or medical treatment as a result of an incident. 

        If the near miss / incident is considered to be serious, the manager should contact the WHS team for advice. The WHS team will advise regarding the notification of the incident to WorkSafe.

        The incident is deemed to be a "Notifiable Incident" and must be reported to WorkSafe if it resulted in:

        • 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 or
        • A person requiring immediate treatment for
        • The amputation of any body part or
        • A serious head injury or
        • A serious eye injury or
        • De-gloving or scalping or
        • Electric shock or
        • A spinal injury or
        • The loss of a bodily function or
        • Serious lacerations

        Notifiable incidents also include those involving

        • registered or licensed plant collapsing, overturning, falling or malfunctioning
        • collapse or failure of an excavation, or shoring supporting an excavation
        • collapse of a building structure (or partial collapse)
        • implosion, explosion, or fire
        • escape, spillage or leakage of any substance
        • plant or objects falling from high places

        If the incident is notifiable, the site of the incident is to remain undisturbed until a WorkSafe Inspector arrives on site or gives permission for disturbance.

        The Head of Department/Unit Manager must report all notifiable incidents to WorkSafe via phone on 132 360 and then in writing within 48 hours by completing the  Worksafe Incident Notification Form.

        The manager should undertake an incident investigation in consultation with the Health and Safety Representative and record the findings and recommendation within the VHIMS report of the incident

        Complex investigations or investigations where there is uncertainty will be supported by the WHS team upon request of the manager or Health and safety Representative.

        Injury Reporting

        • Any injury to staff or visitors should be recorded within VHIMS by the manager or the reporting staff member
        • If a person has been injured the need for first aid should be assessed and action taken as appropriate
        • If an injured staff member loses time from work or requires medical treatment for their injury, the manager should follow the process as outlined in the Early Intervention and Rehabilitation – Work Related Injury procedure.  

        6. Reference documents (which may be referred to)