Sound Incident Reporting is No Accident

Sound Incident Reporting is No Accident

by Randy Goodhope, ARP
Director of Education
American Resort Development Association

Each time I schedule a conference call with the various seminar planning committee members in each of the ARDA regional areas, we spend the majority of our time and efforts concentrating on areas of the resort operations that should be spotlighted for attention and focus. Once these areas are identified, we then work to identify industry professionals who have a special expertise or have been sited for best practices in this particular area and then ask the person(s) to put together a presentation for the attendees. And in almost every case, these speakers are gracious enough to fulfill our request and share a piece of their knowledge and expertise with our audience members. After the success of the “mock trial” session held at this year’s ARDA Convention, the planning groups asked for a focus on the importance of incident reports and the serious ramifications of missed or incorrect reporting.

During the two most recent regional seminars, ARDA-Carolinas and ARDA-New England, the tables were turned on the audience and instead of the usual podium presentation, we asked a cast of characters to perform a series of brief skits in order to set the scene of those in the audience. We then asked these people, who deal with similar situations and issues on a daily basis, to help us create the best possible incident reporting form. Of course, we added the caveat the no single form will work for all properties nor will a single form be best for every occasion—instead we asked those 200 industry professionals to create some overall general guidelines which the entire industry could benefit from. Once these skits were performed, the resulting group brainstorming was pretty incredible.

The background stage was set with the tale of a resort property, a welcome party where alcoholic beverages were a part of the mix, a guest who is just a little tipsy, a freshly mopped floor, a fairly new front desk employee, and a pair of witnesses who did their best to remain uninvolved. The presentations also included some basic incident reporting forms generously provided by GoodManagement and Island One Resorts.

Key Elements to an Incident Reporting Form

After the applause and laughter of the skit subsided, the audience was asked to guide us as to what are the important elements for an incident report form to incorporate. Here is a list of the important items they identified:

A date, time and location of the incident, plus the date and time of when the incident report was completed.
Name of party or parties involved and clear identification of who is completing the incident report itself.
Resort and location and phone number.
Name and contact information including address and phone number for any witnesses to the incident.
Contact information for parties involved in the incident and any emergency contact information.
Clear identification of any obvious or apparent injuries.
A clear and concise description of any assistance that was offered and when; and most importantly if the assistance was accepted or refused.
Information on whether or not 911 or emergency services were contacted as well as the response time and any recommendations made.
The attitude of the parties involved plus observations of behavior.
Include or attach witness statements with witness signatures and names clearly printed.
Clear description of resort staff reactions to the incident or situation.
Note any environmental factors that may be important, like lighting, weather, clothing, signage and other factors.
Make sure the scene of the incident is thoroughly investigated and well documented.
Note any impairment of those involved like the use of canes, walkers, bone casts, crutches, eyeglasses, contact lenses, etc.
Diagrams of the incident area and photographs may prove to be very important.
If possible, a signature for the parties involved.

Ask Your Own Legal Counsel for Advice

Of particular interest was the discussion of the most obvious important part of any incident report—the description of the incident itself. The responses were a mixed bag of writing down only “the facts and nothing but the facts,” to including staff impressions of subjective factors. For example: “This guest appeared to be tipsy and spoke with a slight slur,” or “the young man mentioned above appeared to stagger as if intoxicated and I’m sure I smelled alcohol on his breath.” So even while you as a reader believe in one approach over the over, this is probably an important area for each property/organization to consider and possibly even discuss with your legal counsel.

Another gray area that seemed to have a mixed review from the two audiences was that of personal description of the person(s) involved. Some attendees thought it was important to include some of the basics like approximate age, height, and weight. Others were just as adamantly opposed to this information being included. This is another item to discuss with your legal advisors.

A Great Incident Report is Not Enough

After covering the area of what should and should not be included on an incident reporting form, we then asked the members of these audiences to focus on other issues directly related to this subject matter. Both groups immediately mentioned the issues of first-aid assistance and the clear importance of staff education and training. You can have a terrific incident reporting form that took hours and hours to create, but if the staff is never trained on how to properly complete this form—and what the expectations are with regard to just how these forms are written—you have just set your staff members up to fail and increased the litigation risk of your property or organization.

Key Points Before Any Incident Reporting

Advanced staff training is the key to any type of incident or accident.
Design an action plan to handle any incident or emergency situation now.
Research what organizations and resources are available for assistance in your local area.
Your plan should take into account necessary steps for before, during, and after any incident or emergency.

Some questions that will need to be answered in the Incident Action Plan are:

What is the staff’s current state of readiness?
Which (if any) staff members are trained in first-aid or CPR? Are those persons scheduled so that the resort will never have a shift void of trained staff?
Who determines when it is necessary to call 911?
How will the resort’s chain of command be informed and kept up to date?
If and when an incident happens, what steps are to be taken during and immediately following the incident?

What are the Elements of an Incident Action Plan?

Phase One: Preliminary Assessment

Photos to document conditions: there should always be a camera ready and available with extra film and batteries.
Incident Reporting Forms: blanks should readily available and staff should know how and where to find them.
Report Review: after an incident report is filed, a process for management and staff to meet and review the report should be in place and executed within a very short time frame.

Phase Two: Litigation Issues

Insurance terms: the policy and coverage should be well-known to management on duty.
A determination needs to be made as to which staff members are authorized to make the decision on whether or not to bring in legal counsel and insurance agents?
Thinking ahead requires serious consideration of insurance coverage, long-term advanced planning, action plans for before, during and after an incident or emergency event. The best plan of all is the one your never have to implement; however, if the day arrives and you need one, you’ll be very thankful the work was completed ahead of time.

As these sessions ended, both groups came to the same conclusions: a great incident report takes time and thought and is an important resource tool for any property, but the reporting form itself must be paired with staff training and development so that your staff is fully knowledge of both the expectations and your organization’s philosophy on completing this type of form. In other words, while the potential for accidents may be the impetus for incident reporting forms, but a clear, concise and well-written incident report will never happen on its own or by accident.