SafetyInsights.org

This systematically reviewed the evidence for efficacy of two-person checks for safety critical tasks in high-consequence industries outside of healthcare. Just 9 studies met inclusion & quality criteria. Providing background: ·        “Arm doors and cross-check” is said to be a familiar statement when travelling by air. It draws on the principle of redundancy and is intended… Continue reading Are two-person checks more effective than one-person checks for safety critical tasks in high-consequence industries outside of healthcare? A systematic review

This study evaluated safety performance indicators against a set of pre-determined criteria to assess the quality of indicators. This included against more objective criteria and also qualitative criteria (assessed via expert groups). The objective quality criteria were: objective, valid, predictive, while the subjective criteria were: clear, functional, and important (see the paper for full definitions).… Continue reading Formal evaluation of construction safety performance metrics and a case for a balanced approach

A study I’ve summarized systematically reviewed the evidence around injury/illness underreporting and contributing factors. Be on the look-out for the summary in the near future, but I’ve dumped the main findings into this table if you’re interested. The full paper is a useful reference if you’re after the original refs or the findings. No major… Continue reading Mini-post: A systematic review of reasons for incident underreporting

Why don’t organisations effectively learn from incidents? This is a question perpetually asked, with various factors, beliefs and data. A 2014 study held focus groups in seven organisations to discuss the factors that employees believe contributed to a failure to learn. Key findings are shown in the attached table via causes for bottlenecks in learning… Continue reading Why don’t organisations learn from incidents?

This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the evidence from over 30 years on the effects of workplace health/wellness programs on specific dietary habits, anthropometric parameters and cardiometabolic risk factors. Not a summary since the full paper is freely available. Wellness programs included screening, individual education, group education, food environment, labelling, financial incentives, physical activity, self-awareness… Continue reading Effectiveness of workplace wellness programmes for dietary habits, overweight, and cardiometabolic health: a systematic review and meta-analysis

This explored inherently safer design principles for reducing confined space risks. A literature review and interviews with 15 confined space (CS) experts was undertaken. An overview of safety in design for CS was given; one element relating to use of autonomous or semi-autonomous technologies for CS operation. Evidence suggests that the adoption of these technologies… Continue reading Inherently Safer Design (ISD) solutions in confined spaces – Experts’ practical feedback in Quebec, Canada

For those interested, the attached image is an AcciMap from Andrew Hopkins on the Glenbrook train crash. What I like about AcciMap (and STAMP/STPA, FRAM etc.) is its focus on articulating the connections between factors and its structural focus on different hierarchical levels (e.g. not just the individuals or workplace, but also upstream beyond the… Continue reading AcciMap of Glenbrook rail crash

This study explored how the framing, language and style of an accident report affects the audience’s proposed solutions to manage the problems found. 93 people were randomly allocated one of three accident “report variants”. The report variations were: Variant 1: A real accident report where the original author’s writing style is human-error focussed, said to… Continue reading Accident Report Interpretation

This may interest you. A paper from Jimmie Hinze, Matthew Hallowell and Kevin Bauds looked at the evidence behind a range of safety strategies and supplemented this with an expert panel. Lots to unpack in this paper, so I’ll cover that in a future summary, but one thing of interest was around the use of… Continue reading Safety incentive programs found to compromise safety performance

Finishing up writing a couple of papers and thought these references may be of interest. The first image is taken from Peter Ladkin’s re-evaluation of Andrew Hopkin’s analysis of the 1999 Glenbrook rail accident (source below). Hopkins and the official investigation revealed some interesting facets of rule following – the governing system was complex, voluminous,… Continue reading Managing systems & documents rather than issues and risks