Near-Miss – Maximize Quantity or Quality???

I’ve been to facilities that emphasize near-miss reporting. A bottom line belief at many of these facilities is that the more near-misses they get reported, the better.

Often, this leads to reporting requirements. Everyone MUST report 10 near-misses per week (or some other near-miss quota). They may even reward (with cash) the reporting of near-misses.

What’s the result? Lots of near-misses. Many of them very low on the significance/potential consequence scale. And the corrective actions for these non-consequence near-misses are of little value.

That got me thinking … near-miss reporting is good but what you really want is for people to report near-misses that could lead to the next big accident. Thus, near-miss quality is important.

So where is you facility? Emphasizing numbers or quality?

Does anyone have ideas for getting better quality near-misses reported? Please let me know about them by leaving a comment here.