Why do we report? To measure.
Why do we measure? To demonstrate.
Why do we demonstrate? To comply.
But what are you measuring? Who decides the classification? Do you trust them? What are your options? Did you read that in your drill sergeant voice? Classification of incidents and occurrences may be the most critical step in the reporting process because fundamentally most measurements start with classifications. Today on a phone call I was asked about the strategy our customers use to get good classification and I found myself talking about a few ways of solving the riddle.
Incident and Occurrence Classification
We are going to spend a lot of time with you designing and implementing your process. While we work through this with you a huge part of the process is classification of incidents and occurrences and also the processes the reports follow as a result. So how do you ensure good classification of the reports? Well the short answer is, look within to find the answer because it is unique per customer but the good news is we can accommodate you. However, lets talk about a few options and the pros and cons of each, but before we do lets talk about your triangle.
Does Your Triangle Point Up or Down
The triangle is the org chart of your business and of course you are thinking “It points up dummy!”, but it is all about perspective. The org chart and reporting processes go hand in hand, but when you think from the perspective of who writes reports the triangle can change directions. So, assuming reports always flow UP the chain we consider the triangle pointing UP when any employee can write reports (healthcare, workplace safety, injury / accident reporting, etc.). Some environments a select few trained people write reports on behalf of the entire organization in which case the triangle points down (security, surveillance, etc).
Trust The Pointy Part
The pointy part of the triangle is where the process control and trust lives; security, surveillance, risk management, workplace safety, quality of care, patient safety, etc. The large part of the triangle is usually the entire workforce if not also including patrons, visitors, guests, patients, etc; a lot of people who cannot classify things well. Ultimately to get good classification you have to move the classification to the pointy part of your triangle and there are a few ways of doing that, but it all starts with understanding your own personal triangle and just how far up to the point you need to get for good classification. You have to answer that, but once you know here are some ideas for moving the control to the right place:
Classification by Questions
A popular option is to have a button that invokes a dialog with a selection of “Situations” and that dialog might lead to another such as…
Does this occurrence involve medications? Does this occurrence involve medical equipment? Etc.
Perhaps based on the selection, other questions can be asked? The choice is yours but this type of strategy gathers facts up front in a selection tree and then the classification is done based on the results. Often time the number of choices exceeds the number of classifications just to assist the end users selection process (Example, 6 items on the list all map to the same incident classification).
Classification by Review
Another option is to defer classification and focus on data capture then use the workflow system to allow classification later by more trained staff. This simplifies capturing data for untrained staff while improving classification accuracy to the highest degree. This has the downside of a lot of workflow that does not scale well in high volume reporting. Additionally, business intelligence reports are skewed prior to classification.
Classification by Trust
You can and are welcome to just let people pick the classifications as part of the report writing process. This may work very well for you, particularly if your report writing people are near the pointy part of the triangle!
Combining Them All
Or maybe a hybrid approach works well for you allowing classification by trust, but with workflow review and re-classification? We can do it.
Regulatory Compliance Considerations
I would estimate 70% of our customers have regulator compliance issues that may encapsulate report numbers. In many environments there are mandates for sequential and non-skipping report numbers for various classifications. This is a major complication for re-classification because to re-classify a report would be to effectively change its numbering position. In many cases this is simply not legal and the only option is classification at the time the report is created and a backup process to void reports for mistakes. Sorry to bring the bad news here, but compliance is never easy.
Leverage Our Experience
Hopefully by this point you have some ideas on how this may work in your use case and even more so we hope you see we have depth of experience in these complex problems which we are glad to share.
About Jason Riffel
Jason is the president and CEO of CIP Reporting the gold standard of Risk Management and Incident Reporting Software. Jason is a lifelong technologist and serial entrepreneur with a borderline unhealthy obsession with all things technology and business. Google+
Tags: classification, compliance, incidents, occrrences