Rescue register
One row per caught failure: near-miss condition, catcher, labor spent, and whether the source was fixed.
MEC-24 Rescue register
Record every failure a person caught before it reached someone else, so near-misses become evidence about the condition rather than silence in the incident count.
Specification overview
What the mechanism includes and where it sits.
The scope, assets, and linked validators, before the steps.
Spec essentials
What this mechanism includes
- 3 steps you can check off.
- 3 templates for briefs and runbooks.
- 4 blocks of policy, product, audit, and postmortem text to copy.
- 3 linked glossary terms.
Filters and validators
Where this spec sits in the system
Tagged in 2 filters, with 1 linked validator.
3 steps. Check each one off as it is done. The templates below record the work.
0 of 3 steps complete
Assets
Templates this mechanism produces.
Copy these into design docs, runbooks, and briefs, with the mechanism permalink.
Repeat-condition list
Conditions that have produced more than one rescue, with the decision taken on each.
Rescue and incident series
Both counts on one axis, so a falling incident count cannot hide a rising one.
Reuse-ready snippets
Copy policy, audit, and incident language.
Use these snippets in requirements, audits, and postmortems with the mechanism permalink.
Policy requirement
Policy requirement (MEC-24 Rescue register) - Failures caught by a person before reaching anyone else are recorded as occurrences. - Each rescue record names the near-miss condition and whether the source condition was fixed. - Rescue counts and incident counts are reviewed together, never separately. Reference: https://ethotechnics.org/mechanisms/patterns/rescue-register
Product requirement
Product requirement (MEC-24) - The rescue register is an artifact in the human impact safety case. - A rescue record cannot be closed without either a fix or a recorded decision not to fix.
Audit evidence checklist
Audit evidence checklist (MEC-24) [ ] Rescue records exist for the review period. [ ] Each names the near-miss condition and the labor spent catching it. [ ] Repeat rescues against one unfixed condition appear as a standing item.
Postmortem trigger
Postmortem trigger (MEC-24) Trigger review when rescues rise while incidents fall, or when the same condition is rescued more than once.
Example usage
Zero incidents, three hundred rescues
One scenario with each part of the mechanism in place.
How it plays out
A medication reconciliation defect produces no incidents for a year because nurses catch every mismatch before dispensing. The register shows 300 rescues against the same unfixed interface, 4,000 hours of checking nobody rostered, and an interface the institution decided not to change. The incident count reads zero. The register reads a system held together by people.
Anti-patterns
Common failure cases and counterfactuals
Each case passes on paper and fails in operation. The counterfactual shows what would have worked.
The lucky safety record
A clean incident log is read as a safe system, while the rescues that produced the clean log go unrecorded.
Counterfactual: Rescues and incidents are one series, and the register is part of the safety case.
False-positive warning: A falling incident count is good news only when rescues are flat too.
Hero accounting
Regular rescues against one unfixed condition are praised as reliable staff rather than read as a defect in the condition.
Counterfactual: A repeat rescue is a standing item against the condition, owned by whoever controls it.
False-positive warning: Reliability of the person is evidence about the system, not about the person.
Validators for this mechanism.
Tools that size the risk this mechanism addresses.
Validator
Delegation Audit
Walks a team through one workflow against six questions and returns an exposure score, the permissions nobody can justify, and whether its decisions can be undone. Start here when the system keeps no decision records yet; use the Record Conformance Checker once it does.
Copy citation (APA/BibTeX)
Cite this page Formats: APA, MLA, Chicago, BibTeX, RIS
APA
Ethotechnics Institute. (2026). MEC-24 Rescue register. Ethotechnics Institute. https://ethotechnics.org/mechanisms/patterns/rescue-register
MLA
Ethotechnics Institute. "MEC-24 Rescue register." Ethotechnics Institute, 2026, https://ethotechnics.org/mechanisms/patterns/rescue-register.
Chicago
Ethotechnics Institute. "MEC-24 Rescue register." Ethotechnics Institute. Oct 1, 2026. https://ethotechnics.org/mechanisms/patterns/rescue-register.
BibTeX
@misc{mechanism_rescue-register,
title={MEC-24 Rescue register},
author={Ethotechnics Institute},
year={2026},
howpublished={Ethotechnics Institute},
url={https://ethotechnics.org/mechanisms/patterns/rescue-register},
version={v1.2.0}
}
RIS
TY - WEB TI - MEC-24 Rescue register AU - Ethotechnics Institute PY - 2026 UR - https://ethotechnics.org/mechanisms/patterns/rescue-register ER -