November 2, 2021 | Aged Care Management
From the1st of October 2021,agedcareproviders are required to report on Serious Incident Report Scheme (SIRS) Priority 2 incidents to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC) in addition to Priority 1 incidents.
WhatarePriority 2 incidents?
SIRS Priority 2 incidents include any reportable incident that does not meet the Priority 1 criteria i.e. where a consumer is momentarily shaken or upset, or experiences temporary redness or marks that do not bruise and where medical or psychological treatment is not required.
There may be incidents where a provider is uncertain whether to categorise an incident as Priority 1 or Priority 2. Providers can access decision making support from theSIRS reportable incidents workflow.
When do we report incidents?
Priority 1 incidents: are to be reported to the ACQSC within 24 hours of the approved provider becoming aware of an incident where the incident has caused, or could have reasonably caused, physical or psychological injury or discomfort that requires medical or psychological treatment.
Priority 2 incidents:are to be reported to the ACQSC within30calendardaysof the approved provider becoming aware of the incident.This obligation came into effect on October 1st 2021.
What are reportable incidents?
- Unreasonable use of force against aconsumer
- Unlawful sexual contact, or inappropriate sexual conduct, inflicted on aconsumer
- Psychological or emotional abuse of aconsumer
- Unexpected death of aconsumer
- Stealing or financial coercion of a consumer, by a staffmember
- Neglect of aconsumer
- Inappropriate physical or chemical restraint of aconsumer
- Unexplained absence of a consumer from the residential care service.
6 considerations to improve service
- How many serious incident notifications have we submitted sinceApril1st 2021?
- What types of incidents have we submitted and is there a trend?
- Have we benchmarked our incident types to sector performance?
- How many incidents did our workforce report into our incident management system since April 1st 2021 and have we audited these to ensure all reportable incidents have been reported to the ACQSC?
- What percentage of our total incidents were Priority 1 and what percentage were Priority 2? Have we analysed the types to identify trends and opportunities for improvement?
- Does our governing body and senior executives of the home/s review the incident reporting analysis?
Ensure compliance and reduce your administrative burden
We partner with you to ensure you have:
- Insights into the effectiveness of your incident management system
- Capacity support to analyse your Serious Risk Incident Response notifications
- Provide reporting on incident trends and recommendations for continuous improvement
- Review and cross check incidents to ensure all reportable incidents have been notified to ACQSC
- Ensure compliance and mitigate risk to yourcare recipients,homeand workforce.
Our Quality, Risk and Complianceteam workwithaged careprovidersto identify and address systemic issues. We work with you and your team to provide you with education and feedback to ensure continuous improvement in preventing and managing incidents.
