There are three major components of SIRS that must be implemented by aged care providers:
Incident management obligations
Providers must have effective systems and practices in place for preventing and managing all incidents and near misses. This includes using an Incident Management System (IMS).
Continuous improvement
Providers must use the data from their IMS to drive quality improvement in service.
Serious incident reporting and response
Your service must notify the Commission of any reportable incidents and report to police where there are reasonable grounds to do so, in addition to managing incidents through your IMS.
Under the SIRS, providers must take all reasonable steps to reduce the risk of serious incidents. This means you are required to:
Incident management systems (IMS)
Your service’s IMS is a system that helps you to prevent incidents and identify, respond to and manage them and any near misses that occur during the course of delivering care and services to consumers. The IMS includes policies and procedures that you will use to prevent and manage incidents, the tools that you will use to document information about incidents and find solutions, and the training and culture you rely on to continuously improve safety.
What is an incident?
An incident is an act, event or omission that occurred (or was suspected to have occurred) and caused harm to a consumer, or another person, or could reasonably have been expected to have caused harm.
A near miss is when an act, event or omission happens that does not result in harm but had the potential to do so. This could be an injury, illness or danger to the health of a consumer or another person.
Both incidents and near misses must be captured by your IMS.
Your IMS should include all incidents that:
- occur at your service
- occur during the delivery of care and services to consumers, whether at your service or out in the community such as when attending appointments, going shopping or participating in activities
- occur while workers are undertaking duties as part of their role.
Incidents not in connection with care
You may also witness incidents that are not connected with care. This may include acts committed by members of a consumer’s household or community who are not affiliated with your service. While incident management and prevention requirements do not apply to these incidents, your service still has a broader responsibility to protect the safety, health and wellbeing of consumers. You must take protective steps when you become aware of neglect or abuse (including suspected or alleged incidents) of consumers.
If an incident may be unlawful, such as a physical assault, or if there is any ongoing danger to any person, your service should contact the police.
You should also support consumers dealing with elder abuse or other issues by connecting them to further assistance, such as:
- OPAN website – the Older Persons Advocacy Network provides free, confidential, and independent support to older people seeking or receiving care and their families or representatives.
- 1800 ELDERHelp (1800 353 374) – a free and confidential National Elder Abuse phone line.
My rights and reporting
If you do not think your service’s response to a reportable incident is sufficient, you should raise your concerns with your manager if you feel safe to do so. If you do not feel safe to raise the issue with your manager, or if you are not satisfied with your service’s response, you also have the right to contact the Commission directly. This is known as disclosure.
Disclosure protection
The Aged Care Act (1997) contains protections for people who disclose reportable incidents. These protections extend to disclosures from former workers, current and former consumers, families, volunteers and advocates.
If the information you are disclosing is protected under these provisions, you are protected from both civil and criminal liability for making the disclosure. You are also protected from victimisation and may be compensated if you are threatened or if action is taken against you.
