Triage

Triage, in a safety context, is the initial sorting step applied to incoming incident, hazard, and near-miss reports so they can be prioritised for action based on potential severity and urgency. It’s typically performed by a supervisor or HSEQ team when reviewing new reports in an incident management system, and it determines what needs immediate containment (e.g., stop work), what needs a formal investigation, and what can be handled as routine follow-up.

An example is a report that a scaffold handrail is loose near an active work area. During triage, the report would be marked high priority, the area would be barricaded and work paused, and the issue assigned for urgent inspection and rectification before work resumes.