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Incident reports are documents detailing unusual events resulting in injury or death in healthcare settings, with the goal of determining preventability and personnel reprimands or training. They are filed in the office of a health and safety coordinator and can lead to policy reviews to prevent future incidents.
In a healthcare setting, an incident report is a document detailing a series of unusual events that resulted in injury or death in a healthcare setting. Incident reporting occurs in other contexts as well, such as the mandatory reporting that employees must file for occupational health and safety reasons when they are injured on the job. This article focuses on the use of incident reports in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and similar settings where patients receive medical care or assisted living services.
Protocol at a facility usually requires an incident report when a patient is injured or dies in the care of health care providers for unusual reasons. Thus, a patient who dies from complications of an illness would not merit an accident report, but if a patient falls during a transfer to the operating table, this would require a report to discuss the situation. The goal of the report is to determine what happened, whether such situations are preventable in the future, and whether personnel need reprimands, additional training, or reassignment.
The first step in any incident is to stabilize the patient, get the situation under control, and write orders for additional patient monitoring to ensure he makes a full recovery. Once the situation has been resolved, hospital staff can generate an incident report. They collect information as soon as possible to make sure it is up to date. A coordinator may interview various witnesses and participants, including bystanders who may not work for the facility, to get the full picture.
This document will describe what happened, using input from staff who were present and providing detailed information, with a special note on any unusual circumstances, such as forgetting to follow safety procedures. He will also discuss the consequences of the accident, such as injury or death. One thing the accident report needs to do is determine whether the injuries were caused by the accident or by something else, as the document can be important in liability discussions. Hospitals must pay for the damage they cause and must also consider the risk of future complications that may require physiotherapy or other treatment.
The accident report is filed in the hospital, usually in the office of a health and safety coordinator. A legal team can subpoena the document if the case becomes contentious, and staff supervisors can also review it. A potential outcome of an incident report could be a review of facility policies to prevent future incidents, such as requiring that two caregivers be present at the time of all transfers, to ensure a patient has adequate support.
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