Occupation Health and Safety: Emergency Response and Incident Reporting Procedures

This article discusses the importance of emergency response procedures and incident reporting in ensuring occupational health and safety. It covers the different stages involved in developing an emergency response plan and the procedures for incident reporting and notification. The article emphasizes the need for proper training and coordination with emergency services to minimize the harm caused by hazardous situations.

Running head: OCCUPATION HEALTH AND SAFETY
OCCUPATION HEALTH AND SAFETY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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1. Emergency response procedures
Emergency response procedures are plans that are implemented by the organisation
which would be put to place during emergency situations or hazards. The major benefit of
developing emergency procedures are to provide a guide to the employees during
emergencies. There might be certain situations which might come unannounced in the
workplace, such as collapsing of the building, fire in the workplace or other situations which
needs the attention of emergency services and other trained personnel to evacuate the people
who are stuck in the hazard (Wex et al. 2014). The whole developed procedure will help to
train the people to response immediately to the hazard and not panic as panic can aggravate
the whole situation and cause much more damage than is possible. The procedure will help to
determine the necessary equipment that would help to control the situation till help arrives at
the place of the hazard. Due to the sudden nature of these emergencies it is necessary that a
plan is developed earlier so that the damage is not intense and the people can get themselves
out from the situation into safety and also help other people so that much damage is not
incurred (Wheeler et al. 2013). Emergency response procedure is an important part of any
organisation.
Emergencies have shortage of time and require sudden actions. If a proper plan or
procedure is not determined earlier then it might cause panic and confusion in the minds of
the people who are present in the situation. This why proper training is given so that they can
themselves control it before the arrival of emergency services since their arrival would also
take a certain amount of time (World Health Organization 2017). People should not
completely rely upon the emergency services to help them during these situation since the
waiting time would cause more damage and poor judgement in these situations could result in
more losses. The main objectives of the emergency response procedures are to help the

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people to handle the situation till the proper help is available. It helps to prevent the number
of injuries on people and fatalities and also reduce the damage that is made to the property.
Every workplace should have a fully prepared emergency plan procedure. The
implemented procedures will help the organisation and the employees of the workplace
during hazardous situations. An emergency can become huge within a few seconds. This why
it is necessary for every organisation to have a full proof plan which will be able to protect
the employees, clients, contractors, visitors and any other people who are present in the
building during the emergency. The emergency procedures need not be a mandatory section
of the corporate policy, it should be implemented to minimize the harm that could be caused
to the infrastructure, employees and the environment during the hazard and use efficient
techniques to save the people who are present during that time (Hursey 2013). There are five
areas which could help to forma concrete emergency response procedure. The five areas are
prevention, protection, mitigation, response and recovery. Prevention is the ways to prevent
the actual hazard or stop the imminent threat from expanding to a much higher scale.
Protection is the procedure to protect the people who are present in the place of the hazard
such as the employees, visitors, clients and the other visitors. Mitigation is the procedure to
lessen the loss of life on the people in the area, the property and infrastructure by reducing the
impact, risk and threat of the hazard (Liu et al. 2014). Response is the procedure to save the
lives of the people who are present during the hazard efficiently and effectively, along with
protecting the environment and property and adhere to the basic needs of the people who
suffer in the incident. Recovery is the procedure which comes after the hazard is in control. In
this procedure, different operations take place so that the health, safety and other aspects of
the infrastructure, people and community can be restored.
Emergencies can occur at any time, therefore, it is necessary that these procedures are
planned from the establishment of the company. The procedures should be implemented

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according to the nature of the business, the infrastructure of the enterprise, the space of the
property and all other aspects such as weather, power failures and others (Kerle and Hoffman
2013). Keeping these factors in mind, the emergency response procedure would follow
certain guidelines. Firstly, the objectives based on which the emergency procedure would be
implemented. Different density of hazards could have different procedures, therefore, it is
mandatory to determine the kind of hazard that the emergency procedure is being
implemented. Secondly, the risk should be assessed before the resources are determined for
the process. The hazard situation has to be determined and reviewed so that the threats are
understood properly in this stage (Wilde 2013). Thirdly, the resources required to stabilize
the environment during the hazard is to be determined in this stage. The resources and
capabilities of the organisation to reduce or counter the threat is the most important part.
Without the right resources the organisation would not be able to stop the threat or reduce it
and protect the people present in their workplace. The internal and external sources has to be
indentified such as equipment, people, systems which will help to reduce and protect during
the threat. Fourthly, an incident management team has to be created (Nicoll and Owens
2013). This team would consist of people who have proper training regarding emergency
protection, knowledge about the emergency procedures and plan and a proper connection has
to be established between the external sources and the team so that they are able to contact
during the emergency situation. This team plays a major part during the hazardous situation
as they have to be capable enough to manage the whole hazardous situation.
Fifthly, the regulations which would be applicable for the workplace has to be
evaluated. This stage would determine the different planning regulations which would be
important to the workplace and ensure that they are compliant to the property. Sixthly, the
protective response procedures have to be developed which will include protective actions
that have to be implemented during the hazard. These actions include lockdown, shelter,

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evacuation and other protective acts (Jahre and Fabbe-Costes 2015). Seventhly, the
information required for the hazard which should be known by all the employees should be
established so that the people would have knowledge about the emergency steps that should
be taken during the emergency. Eighthly, the organisation should maintain proper
coordination with the different public emergency services near the workplace. These services
will be the ones who will come to aid during the hazard and relive the people who are stuck
in the hazard. The services include fire services, police, emergency medical providers and
such. The response time for each these services should be determined so that the capability of
the emergency services are understood which would be needed to stabilize the hazardous
situation. Ninthly, proper emergency response training should be provided to all the people
who are present in the workplace. This is required so that they know what to do in hazardous
situation such as providing first aid, helping another employee and others (Hawe 2015). All
the people working in the organisation should have complete knowledge about the emergency
plan so that they know every exit routes and other places which could save them from the
hazard. Every person should be given individual roles and responsibility so that they do not
get confused during the situation and know what they have to do to prevent from further
damaging other people and the workplace.
Lastly, the workplace would have to prepare the people in the workplace for the
sudden hazards. For this they should prepare drills and exercises and design them in such a
way that they match the real life hazardous situation. This would help them to gain
knowledge and expertise about the situation and provide understanding as to what will
happen if the real situation takes place. The drills and exercises should also be designed so
that the plan is p0utr into effect and the participants know what to expect from the situation.
The strategies and tactics that would be required in emergency situations is determined in this
stage. These are the different stages of the emergency procedure which is needed for the

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response of the people in the workplace (Li et al. 2015). There are a few mandatory inclusion
in the whole emergency procedure which should be kept in mind. Proper evacuation routes
should be identified as well as different ways of escaping from the building and the
employees should have knowledge about these routes and these routes should always be kept
unobstructed. The safety of the staff is the most important factor during these situation and
the medical aids should first evacuate all the staff from the hazard zone and then concentrate
on other factors such as the property (Cohen et al. 2013). Additionally, the organisation
should have a safe zone where the employees can gather during these situations and a head
count can be done so as to determine that all the staff are safe and no harm has been suffered
by anyone.
2. Procedures for incident reporting and notification
Reporting and notifying all the incidents, hazard and incidents are a mandatory
process in the aftermath of the emergency situation. There are different kinds of reports for
different situations. A report is required in case of an event which has caused damage, loss or
ill health of a person during the emergency termed as an incident. A report has to be made of
the event which has the potential to cause harm, injury or ill health to a person termed as a
near miss. A report has to be made for a situation which presents a potential for an incident,
near miss or an accident termed as a hazard (Reed et al. 2013). In these three situations it is
necessary to submit a report and notify the government about the hazard so that proper
investigations could be made regarding the cause and impact of the hazard. The reporting is
also required for statutory purposed in case an employee suffers any injury or is affected by
any disease which can result in the death of that employee. The different procedures for
incident notification are as follows. Firstly, the people in the organisation who are involved in
the incident have to report it to their supervisors who might be the directors, management.
The supervisor will in turn notify the emergency facility services in case the people present in

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the incident require any medical attention (Winckler, Bach and Bernhaupt 2013). Notification
of the incident must be reported immediately as soon as the incident occurs, irrespective of
the day or time of the incident. In case of any injury which is sustained during the incident,
the supervisor should be notified of the same so that he could notify the safety officer who
can act on their knowledge and take the necessary steps.
Notification should also be made in case of death of any employee in the hazard so
that the required procedure could be implemented by the safety officer. Notification is
important so that the supervisor has knowledge about the situation which is occurring at the
workplace and can notify the safety officer instead who can take the necessary steps to reduce
or save the people from the hazard (Vallejo-Gutiérrez 2014). After the notification process,
incident reporting is also mandatory. Reporting is done after the immediate steps are taken
for the people who are stuck in the hazard. The reporting process involving providing
knowledge about the incident and the number of people who have suffered injury or have
received medical treatment due to the impact of the hazard. Moreover, the number of people
who have died during the incident have to be reported as well. All the occurring of the
incident are documented so that the people who have faced the incident are provided with
proper compensation and the families of the dead also receive compensation for their loss
(Bierie 2015). The supervisor should appoint a person who have been either present in the
scene or have full knowledge of the incident to gather the facts and report ot through the
incident report form and a proper documentation is maintained so that there is no further
complication regarding he occurrence of the incident.

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