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Quality Assurance22 April 2026·4 min read

What a Healthy Incident Reporting Culture Looks Like

Rising incident numbers are often a sign of improvement. Here is how to read your reporting data honestly.

By Jd Global Advisory Team

Volume is not the measure

Organisations that punish reporting record fewer incidents and suffer more serious ones. Track the ratio of near-miss to actual incidents, time from occurrence to report, and the proportion of findings closed within target instead of raw counts.

  • Near-miss to incident ratio trending upward
  • Median time to report under 24 hours
  • Corrective actions closed within agreed timeframes
  • Repeat findings declining period on period

Feed results back

People stop reporting when nothing visibly changes. Publish a short monthly summary of what was reported, what changed as a result, and what remains open.