From infancy to adolescence: the development and future of the national firefighter near-miss reporting system

The National Fire Fighter Near-Miss Reporting System (NFFNMRS) is a voluntary adverse event reporting system designed as a repository to which firefighters submit information on the hazards seen in their work, detailing the events that led to near-misses and injuries. This descriptive article discusses the development of the system since its inception, the strengths and limitations of the resultant data, and the improvements to be made to ensure the system's usefulness. Especially in their infancy, near-miss systems are very dependent on funding and sensitive to any reductions as they head toward steady-state reporting. This sustainability factor has significant implications for continued reporting to the system and the ultimate utility of the data. Very few such data systems exist for occupational health surveillance.