According to The Department of Health, the new Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) commenced 1 April 2021. Under this scheme, residential aged care providers must notify the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC) whenever certain “reportable incidents” occur. Today we look at what is and isn’t a “reportable incident.”
For a general summary of the SIRS see our previous article: Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS): A Summary for Residential Aged Care Providers.
For a closer look at some of the important questions raised by the SIRS, see our previous article: Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS): FAQs for Residential Aged Care Providers.
The SIRS is a national framework for incident management and reporting of serious incidents in residential aged care. It imposes obligations on aged care providers to manage and report on incidents, and expands the powers of the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC).
From 1 April 2021, you must notify the ACQSC of every “Priority 1 reportable incident” within 24 hours of becoming aware of the incident. To be clear, you do not have to notify the ACQSC of every incident. You only have to notify the ACQSC of an incident that is classified as a “reportable incident” AND “Priority 1.” This means you need to understand:
(Note: from 1 October 2021, you will also have to report all “Priority 2” reportable incidents. We will cover this requirement in detail later this year.)
According to the SIRS, “A reportable incident is any of the following incidents that have occurred, are alleged to have occurred, or are suspected of having occurred, in connection with the provision of residential care, or flexible care provided in a residential setting, to a residential care recipient of an approved provider”:
Before we look at each of these in detail let’s note a general rule about what is not a reportable incident.
The SIRS says that the incidents listed above are not reportable if “the incident results from the residential care recipient deciding to refuse to receive care or services offered by the approved provider.” In practice, this exception would apply only in very limited situations. Now let’s look closely at each of the “reportable incidents.”
Includes: “conduct ranging from a deliberate and violent physical attack to use of unwarranted physical force.” E.g., hitting, pushing, shoving, or rough handling.
Does not include: gently touching the residential care recipient for the purposes of providing care, attracting attention, guiding or comforting.
Includes:
Does not include: consensual contact or conduct of a sexual nature between the residential care recipient and a person who is not a staff member of the approved provider (e.g., another resident).
Includes:
Includes death in circumstances where:
E.g., death in the event of a fall, untreated pressure injury, or the actions of a consumer result in the death of another consumer.
Includes:
E.g., if a staff member coerces a consumer to change their will to their advantage, or steals valuables from the consumer.
Includes:
E.g., withholding personal care, untreated wounds, or insufficient assistance during meals.
All uses of physical and chemical restraint are reportable incidents unless the use complies with section 15F (for physical restraint) or 15G (for chemical restraint) of the Quality of Care Principles 2014 (Cth).
Both 15F and 15G say that restraint can only be used as a last resort and set many requirements for assessment and reporting.
Examples of non-compliant uses of restraint (which must be reported) include:
Includes an absence of the residential care recipient from the residential care services in circumstances where there are reasonable grounds to report the absence to police.
Remember, until 1 October 2021, you only have to report under the SIRS if the incident is a “reportable incident” AND “Priority 1”. So what is “Priority 1”?
A Priority 1 incident is any reportable incident that is ALSO one of these:
Note: After 1 October you will also have to notify the ACQSC within 30 days of any reportable incidents that are “Priority 2”. A Priority 2 incident is effectively any reportable incident that is not Priority 1. We will cover this in more detail later this year.
Mark Bryan
Mark is a Legal Research Consultant at CompliSpace and the editor for ACE. Mark has worked as a Legal Policy Officer for the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department and the NSW Department of Justice. He also spent three years as lead editor for the private sessions narratives team at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Mark holds a bachelor’s degree in Arts/Law from the Australian National University with First Class Honours in Law, a Graduate Diploma in Writing from UTS and a Graduate Certificate in Film Directing from the Australian Film Television and Radio School.
Jenny Wang
Jenny is the Content Integration Team Leader at CompliSpace and a legal research assistant for the aged care team. She has a Bachelor of Science (Financial Mathematics and Statistics) and is currently completing her Bachelor of Laws at the University of Sydney.