Incident reporting
A licensed private health facility is required to have a written incident management system outlining the procedures to be followed in the case of an incident or adverse event.
In accordance with the legislation licensed private health facilities are required to report any adverse event to the Private Health Care Unit.
Adverse event means an unintended injury to a patient, or a complication caused by the health care management of the patient, that results in disability, death of a patient, or prolonged hospital stay by the patient.
The licensee must ensure that a root cause analysis team is appointed under section 42 of the Private Health Facilities Act 2007 http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/maintop/view/inforce/act+9+2007+cd+0+N for any reportable incident. It is also a requirement that the licensee must, within 30 days after being provided with an incident report from the root cause analysis team, forward a copy of the report to the Director-General.
The definition of a reportable incident is found in the NSW Health Policy Directive PD 2005_634, Reportable Incident Definition under section 20L of the Health Administration Act http://www.health.nsw.golv.au/policies/pd/2005/pdf/PD2005_634.pdf.