Improving the Culture of Safety
Having the option of anonymous reporting helps improve a culture of safety within an organization by making staff feel more comfortable.
Anonymous reporting helps to ensure that reporting is blame free. Individuals that are concerned about retaliation can report without fear of losing their jobs. This improves the culture of safety since more reports are received about issues in the facility. These issues can then be addressed to avoid future patient or employee safety issues from occurring. With employees not as afraid to report, more reports are likely to be received. Even if these reports are anonymous limiting follow-up, it allows for more data to be collected which when combined, can allow for conclusions to be drawn. On top of those conclusions, having some information that incidents are occurring is better than not knowing at all.
By implementing anonymous reporting, management is showing that they care more about the actual incident that occurred than who was involved. This helps to show staff the importance of safety at the facility. Especially if after incidents are reported management shares findings and increases their transparency on what is occurring, staff will acknowledge their dedication to safety and correcting mistakes. Once management shows this importance, staff will start to grow more comfortable generating a greater focus on safety by all. Additionally, once staff are comfortable with their organization and see that they should not be worried about retaliation, they will be less likely to utilize the anonymous function. It acts as a mechanism to help grow the culture of safety in the facility and increase trust between management and staff.
