Article 4 ACCIDENT PREVENTION THROUGH EXPERIENCE FEEDBACK FROM THE RESCUE SERVICES - A STUDY OF INCIDENT REPORTS IN SWEDEN

The fire and rescue services are called to the scene of almost all serious accidents. The purpose of this investigation was to find out whether the information they obtain in the course of their normal operations can be used to improve experience feedback from accidents. 1120 incident reports from two local Swedish fire and rescue services were studied. These reports contained 217 proposals for improvement. However, the reports are primarily intended for statistical purposes, and currently they are not used systematically for experience feedback. A system for dissemination of such information is proposed. It is suggested that the rescue services should themselves convey the relevant information to local recipients, whereas a national authority should be responsible for collecting and distributing information to non-local recipients such as companies whose products have been involved in an accident and regulatory authorities whose regulations may be in need of reassessment. Objectives: One aim was to find out whether information obtained in the fire and rescue services regular work can contribute to a more efficient and comprehensive experience feedback system. If the answer to this question is positive, what organisational measures are needed to realize this potential? Methods: Document studies, additional interviews. Results: 217 different proposals for improvement were found in the studied incident reports. Overall, the improvement proposals are concrete and directly implementable. Yet, the dissemination of improvement proposals is not a reality today. Conclusions: The fire and rescue services obtain valuable information for preventive work. Thus, much can be gained by disseminating information from the incident reports. In a properly working dissemination process recipients need to be identified. Recipients can at first be divided into two major categories: local and non-local recipients.