From 1 October 2021, Priority 2 incidents must be reported under the Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS). Here’s what residential aged care providers need to understand and start preparing.
As mentioned in a previous Aged Care Essentials article, the SIRS is a national framework for incident management and reporting of serious incidents in residential aged care. It imposes obligations on residential aged care providers to manage and report on specific incidents and expands the powers of the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC).
The SIRS imposes two main requirements on residential aged care providers/services:
While the SIRS mandatory reporting requirements for Priority 1 incidents commenced 1 April 2021, the requirement to report “Priority 2” incidents commences 1 October 2021.
Aged care providers/services must report the following types of incidents to the ACQSC:
Reportable incidents are divided into:
A “Priority 1 incident” occurs where the incident has caused, or could reasonably have caused, a care recipient physical or psychological injury or discomfort that requires medical or psychological treatment to resolve. Priority 1 incidents also include incidents where there are reasonable grounds to contact the police. Unexplained absence from care and unexpected death are always to be regarded as Priority 1 incidents.
A “Priority 2 incident” includes all other reportable incidents that do not meet the criteria for a Priority 1 incident.
This usually includes reportable incidents that result in a low level of harm to recipients, for instance, where a care recipient is briefly shaken or upset, or experiences temporary redness or marks that do not bruise. Incidents where medical treatment is not required are also likely to be Priority 2 incidents. The obligation to report Priority 2 incidents applies from 1 October 2021.
In circumstances where you are unsure whether the harm to the care recipient is low, or the recipient experiences ongoing distress or concern, it may be reasonable to assess the incident as a Priority 1 incident.
To support this decision making, the Serious Incident Response Scheme reportable incidents workflow published by the ACQSC is a useful resource.
The obligation to report applies to all “approved providers”. This effectively means that the obligation to report applies to all residential care homes. But an abstract entity such as an “approved provider” or “residential care home” cannot perform a task like reporting. Such tasks must be performed by a particular person or persons.
Which particular person or persons at your home are obliged to make the SIRS reports? Unfortunately, there is no official guidance on this. So, at this stage, you should take a broad view and assume that the reporting responsibility applies to your governing body/board and leadership and management team.
All “approved providers” (i.e. your governing body/board and leadership and management team) also have a responsibility to ensure that any staff member who becomes aware of a reportable incident notifies senior staff “as soon as possible.”
The identification of an incident as either a Priority 1 incident or a Priority 2 incident will dictate when you must report an incident to the ACQSC.
Priority 1 incidents must be reported to the ACQSC within 24 hours of becoming aware of the incident.
Priority 2 incidents must be reported to the ACQSC within calendar 30 days of becoming aware of the incident.
If there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that the incident should be reported to the police, it must be reported within 24 hours of becoming aware of the incident. Note: reporting to the police is an additional obligation. You still have to report to the ACQSC even if you report to police.
Reports to the ACQSC are made via the My Aged Care Provider Portal.
Reports to police are made by calling them directly in an emergency or otherwise by phoning your local police station.
You must inform the ACQSC of all reportable incidents, including those that involve care recipients with cognitive impairments such as dementia.
However, you may be able to apply for an exemption. Section 95D of the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission Rules 2018 (Cth) states that the Commissioner may decide that an approved provider is not required to give notice about a reportable incident if they are satisfied that, as a result of a care recipient’s delusion, a care recipient repeatedly alleges that the same incident has occurred.
But note, you must report the first incident, and if the same person is involved in a new incident the exemption does not apply and you must report the new incident.
Yes. The SIRS require you to report all reportable incidents that occur “in connection with” the provision of care. For example, if the incident occurs while staff are taking residents off site for an appointment it must be reported.
Aged care providers must report a Priority 2 incident within 30 calendar days of “becoming aware” of the incident. At exactly what point does someone “become aware” of an incident?
As noted above, the reporting obligations apply to “aged care providers” not to general staff, so our best guess is that the clock starts ticking as soon as an “aged care provider” (i.e. a member of the management or leadership team) becomes aware of the incident or has a suspicion of an incident. For example, if a staff member witnesses a resident being bullied at 1.45pm and reports this to their manager at 2.15pm, then the clock starts at 2.15pm and the incident (Priority 1) must be reported by 2.15pm the following day.
Similarly, if a staff member observes that a resident is momentarily shaken on 1 June and notifies their supervisor of this on the following day (i.e. 2 June), then a provider would presumably have “become aware” on 2 June and have 30 calendar days from this date to report the incident. It is important to remember these are “calendar days” and not business days.
However, given that staff are the ones most likely to become aware of an incident first (for example, by witnessing an incident or signs of possible abuse, or receiving information from care recipients directly), providers have an obligation to ensure that staff are taught how to recognise and report incidents.
The ACQSC has some specific powers it can use in response to a particular report and some general powers to gather and use data from a collection of reports.
When the ACQSC receives a notification of a reportable incident, it can:
The ACQSC also has the following powers of enforcement:
The ACQSC will use the incident reports it receives to: