Dr. Soumar Dutta discusses various concepts related to patient safety and accident prevention. He defines key terms like incident, accident, unsafe act, and unsafe condition. Accidents can be preventable or unpreventable. The main causes of accidents according to the Heinrich Theory are unsafe acts and unsafe conditions, which account for 98% of accidents. Successful accident prevention requires identifying hazards, estimating risks, eliminating hazards where possible, using engineering controls, education and training, and enforcement of safety policies. Safety equipment alone is not enough - developing a trained, alert, and safe workforce is most important for any disaster prevention program.

1. Dr Soumar Dutta
Patient Safety Officer
Narayana Superspeciality Hospital
Guwahati

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4. What Is An Accident?
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5. What Is An Accident?
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6. Terminologies
Incident
Accident: Preventable/Unpreventable
Unsafe act
Unsafe Condition
Hazard
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7. Incident – An incident is an undesirable occurrence that could, but usually does not,
result in a loss.
Unsafe Act – Any act on the part of a person which increased his or her chances of
having an accident
Unsafe Condition – A condition within the working environment which increases the
worker’s chances of having an accident, or which may cause impairment of health.
Hazard – Any arrangement, equipment, material, object, condition, method or
procedure capable of causing bodily harm or impairment of health or both.
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8. Preventable Accident
An accident that occurred as a result
of an act or failure to act on the part
of an employee or the management
or both.
Accident – An accident is an unplanned, unforeseen and undesirable occurrence
which interrupts a normal activity, and which results in either an injury, loss of life,
damage to material, equipment or facility or any combination of these.
Unpreventable Accident
An accident which no act
whatsoever on the part of the
employee could have prevented the
injury or damages to vehicle,
equipment or property.
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9. What is the main cause of accidents?
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13. Heinrich Theory Of
Accident Causation
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Social
Environment
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Fault of the
person
3
Unsafe Action
/ Unsafe
Condition
4
Accident
5
Injury
Accident is the result of
completion of
5 dominos
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14. Heinrich Theory Of Accident Causation
Domino no-3 i.e Unsafe Acts & Unsafe
conditions are the main contributory
factor for accident causation.
It indicates that 98% of accidents can be
prevented
Unsafe
Act
88%
Others
2%
Unsafe
Condition
10%
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15. Causes of accident
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16. Causes of accident
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17. Accidents, ill health and incidents are seldom inevitable random
events. They generally arise from failures in control and often have
multiple causes.
Although the immediate cause of an event may be a human or
technical failure, such events usually arise from organizational
failings which are the responsibility of management.
Successful safety policies place heavy emphasis on achieving
effective control over both people and technology.
They aim to exploit the strengths of employees while minimizing
the influence of human limitations.
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18. Successful accident prevention requires a
minimum of four fundamental activities
A study of all
working areas to
detect and
eliminate or
control physical
hazards which
contribute to
accidents.
A study of all
operating
methods and
practices.
Education,
instruction,
training and
discipline to
minimize human
factors which
contribute to
accidents.
Thorough
investigations of
accidents to
determine
contributing
circumstances.
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19. Techniques of accident prevention
Accident prevention is relatively simple
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20. PROaction versus REaction
“Well, that’s an accident
waiting to happen…”
“Someone ought to do
something…”
That someone is YOU!
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21. Identify the Hazard
Physical
• Noise
• Vibration
• Radiation
• Temperature
• Pressure,Velocity,H
eight
• Electricity
• Physical
Characterstics
Chemical
• Explosives
• Flammable liquids
• Corrosives
• Oxidizing materials
• Toxic,carcinogenic
substance
• Gases& air
particles
Biological
• Biological waste
• Drugs
• Viruses,bacteria
• Parasite,insects
• Poisonous or
diseased
plants,animal
Ergonomics
• Physical
• Environmental
• Psycho social
Physical
• Poor work, task design
• Repetitive motion
• Prolonged sitting
• Poor layout
• Poor posture
• Improper lifting and
handling
Environmental
• Poor lighting,glare
• Poor ventilation
• Poor temperature
control
• Poor humidity control
Psycho-social
• Work rest cycles
• Violence,
discrimination
• Extraneous stress
• Uneven workload
• Lack of personnel
space
• Poor inter-staff
relationships
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22. Estimate the hazard: Risk estimation
•A measure of the probability and severity of a hazard to harm human
health, property, or the environment
•A measure of how likely harm is to occur and an indication of how
serious the harm might be
Risk  0
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23. Examples of hazards and their effects at workplace
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24. Eliminate the Hazard completely
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25. Hazard Control: Engineering Controls
Hazards exist in every workplace in many different forms.
Engineering controls are anything that is built or installed to separate
people from chemical, biological or physical hazards, and can include fume
hoods, biosafety cabinets, glove boxes, and blast protectors.
Engineering controls involve a physical change to the workplace itself,
rather than relying on workers' behavior or requiring workers to wear
protective clothing.
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26. Hazard Control: Engineering Controls
Physical
• Noise
• Vibration
• Radiation
• Temperature
• Pressure,Velocity,H
eight
• Electricity
• Physical
Characterstics
Chemical
• Explosives
• Flammable liquids
• Corrosives
• Oxidizing materials
• Toxic,carcinogenic
substance
• Gases& air
particles
Biological
• Biological waste
• Drugs
• Viruses,bacteria
• Parasite,insects
• Poisonous or
diseased
plants,animal
Ergonomics
• Physical
• Environmental
• Psycho social
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28. Education and Training
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Safety education is the most effective tool in the prevention of human causes.
• Adequate instruction
• Personnel gain useful knowledge
• Develop safe attitudes
Training is an important accident prevention control; it gives each man a
personal safety tool by development in him habits of safe practice and
operation.

29. Enforcement
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30. Take home message..............
• Safety Helmet is required but Positive Thoughts are important
• Safety Goggles are required but Conscious Vision is important
• Safety Hand Gloves are required but Righteous Protective Action is important
• Safety Shoes are required but Quick and Safe Steps are important means
• Safety Equipments are required but Trained, Alert & Safe Man is more
important in any Disaster Prevention programme.
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