Near-miss reporting system as an occupational injury preventive intervention in manufacturing.

BACKGROUND a database of near-misses (NM), minor injuries, and OSHA recordable injuries was established at a mid-size electrical manufacturing plant as part of injury prevention efforts. The utility of a NM reporting system was evaluated by estimating its impact on the annual incidence of minor and OSHA recordable injuries. METHODS logistic regression was performed to examine the effects of predictor variables (year, age, duration of employment) on the type of event (NM, minor, OSHA recordable). Poisson regression was fit to model the annual rate of OSHA recordable injuries as a function of time. RESULTS 1690 events were reported between 1999 and 2006 including 261 NM, 1205 minor, and 205 OSHA recordable injuries. The expected rate of OSHA recordable injuries decreased by 0.84 (95% CI: 0.73-0.97) annually. CONCLUSIONS the implementation of a NM reporting system was associated with decrease in the rate of OSHA recordable injuries. NM reporting systems may be valuable injury interventions in manufacturing.

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