Near miss examples at work and in healthcare, with definitions
Near miss examples from workplaces and hospitals: a reversing forklift, falling material, an intercepted drug error. Plus HSE and AHRQ definitions.
Near miss examples at work and in healthcare
Near miss examples include a reversing forklift almost hitting a pedestrian, dropped building material that narrowly missed a worker below and a dispensing error caught before it reaches a patient. In HSE's near miss definition, the event causes no harm but could cause injury or ill health. Healthcare reporting also asks whether the event reached the patient (AHRQ Common Formats).
Workplace near miss examples
These four cases come from Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW). Its suggested controls are not US or UK legal requirements.
| What happened | Why it counts as a near miss |
|---|---|
| After moving a load, a forklift driver reversed while turning left and nearly struck a pedestrian (MHLW) | The pedestrian could have been injured in a collision; the forklift did not strike them |
| A hospital kitchen worker carrying boiling water slipped on a wet floor and almost fell. Letting go of the pot avoided a scald (MHLW) | Boiling water could have scalded the worker; releasing the pot avoided the scald |
| Material dropped during transport on a second floor nearly hit a worker below who was directing pedestrians and vehicles (MHLW) | The falling material could have injured the worker below; it missed them |
| A gloved hand nearly got caught while drilling a concrete wall with an impact driver (MHLW) | The rotating tool could have injured the worker's hand; the hand did not become caught |
For the forklift, MHLW points to unrestricted pedestrian access, no guide and insufficient work planning. It suggests keeping people out of the operating area, sharing an operating plan and using a guide. For the drill, MHLW says to keep away from rotating parts and avoid gloves in that particular entanglement situation. That advice covers this task only, not gloves on every power tool.
Near miss meaning versus incident and accident
Great Britain's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) defines these terms in its investigation guide HSG245. An accident is an event that results in injury or ill health. A near miss is an event that causes no harm but has the potential to cause injury or ill health.
HSE uses "adverse event" as the umbrella over accident and incident. Incident covers near misses and undesired circumstances. An undesired circumstance is a condition with the potential to cause harm, such as a wet floor nobody has slipped on yet. If someone slips and recovers without injury, that's a near miss. If they fall and break a wrist, it's an accident. Other organisations arrange these terms differently, so check your company's scheme.
Near miss examples in healthcare
Patient safety reporting classifies these events differently. Under the US AHRQ Common Formats, a near miss is an event that did not reach the patient. An incident reached the patient, with or without harm. An unsafe condition raises risk without any identifiable patient.
So a nurse who intercepts a dispensing error before it reaches the patient has a near miss. A wrong medicine that reaches a patient and causes no harm is a no-harm incident. And "reaching" doesn't mean swallowing. AHRQ classes wrong pills that the patient recognises and refuses as an incident too.
NHS England guidance gives a similar pair (LFPSE guidance, Version 4, 1 May 2023). A medicine is picked after storage at the wrong temperature, then withheld when someone spots the problem: that's a prevented medication incident. The wrong medicine actually given without ill effect is recorded differently.
Terminology isn't uniform. The AHRQ-hosted PSNet primer uses a broader near miss definition, including hazardous situations with no harm because of detection or luck. Its refused-pills illustration overlaps with what Common Formats calls an incident. Follow the framework your reporting system uses.
What to do after a near miss
HSG245 sets out four investigation steps: gather information, analyse it, identify risk controls and put an action plan in place. Scale the investigation to how bad the outcome could have been and how likely it is to happen again, not only to the injury that actually occurred.
Internal reporting is separate from legal notification. In Great Britain, RIDDOR dangerous occurrences are specified categories in Schedule 2. Not every internal near miss report meets those tests (HSE). In the US, federal OSHA recordkeeping covers actual injuries and illnesses that meet criteria such as death, days away or restricted work, treatment beyond first aid, or loss of consciousness (OSHA 1904.7). A near miss with no injury or illness doesn't go on the OSHA 300 log just because the potential outcome was serious. Sector rules and State Plans can add duties, so check the ones that apply to you.
RegAffairs AI answers "What are some near miss examples at work?" with cited sources.