Incidents

This page is for everyone in the organisation. It covers reporting an incident, what the categories and severity mean, the CQC prompt, and how a coordinator closes or reopens one.

Reporting from anywhere

Anyone who works with clients can report an incident, a support worker as readily as a coordinator. Safety information must never wait behind a permission. The office and inspector roles read the record and do not report into it.

The “Report incident” button is on:

• the “Incidents” page
• “My week”
• the visit sheet at the door, where it fills in the client, the visit and the date for you
• the search box, as “Report an incident”

Reporting from a visit is best when the incident happened on one, because the report then keeps the visit with it.

The form is the same everywhere. See Reporting an incident for the fields step by step.

Categories

“Fall”, “Medication error”, “Safeguarding concern”, “Serious injury”, “Death”, “Missing person”, “Police involved”, “Complaint”, “Near miss”, “Other”.

Severity

“Low”, “Medium” or “High”. Severity guides who looks first. Everything lands in the log either way.

Every incident, whatever its severity, becomes a row on the coordinators’ Alerts shelf the moment it is sent, so a report nobody has looked at is chased like a missed visit. Anything that is not “Low”, and anything CQC would expect a notification for, also emails the coordinators at once with the reporter’s name and the date. A CQC-notifiable one emails the owner and the registered manager as well. The email names no client and gives no detail.

The CQC prompt

Five categories carry a prompt when they are chosen: “Safeguarding concern”, “Serious injury”, “Death”, “Missing person” and “Police involved”. It reads:

“This kind of incident normally needs a statutory notification to CQC. The registered manager must send it. This record keeps that you were told.”

The platform prompts. It does not notify CQC. The registered manager sends the statutory notification. The record keeps that the prompt was shown, and the incident is counted as CQC-notifiable on the quality report.

The log

“Incidents” is described as “Everything reported, newest first. Every line is audited.”

The filter row has the search box, labelled “Search incidents”, which matches the words, the kind, or the person it happened to. Next to it are two buttons, “Open” and “Closed”: press one to see that shelf on its own, press it again to see everything. A week opened from the quality report arrives as a chip you can clear.

The search box can also be filled for you. Searching an incident by what it says in Cmd+K opens the log with those words already in the box.

The columns are “When”, “Client”, “Reported by”, “Severity”, “What happened” and “Status”. A closed incident shows what was done underneath the description.

Coordinators, the office and an inspector see everything. A support worker sees only the incidents they reported themselves.

Closing an incident

1. Click “Close” on the row.
2. The dialog asks “Close this incident?” and says “Say what was done about it, if anything. It stays on the record.”
3. Fill in “What was done”, for example that the step was re-gritted and the family told.
4. Fill in “Why is it being closed?”, for example that the family are satisfied and no further action is needed.
5. Click “Close incident”, or “Keep open” to stop.

Both boxes need a few words at least. Closing is a correction to a care record, so the reason goes in the audit trail under your name.

Reopening an incident

1. Click “Reopen” on a closed row.
2. The dialog asks “Reopen this incident?” and says “Say why it needs looking at again. The reason stays on the record.”
3. Fill in “Why is it being reopened?”, for example that the family rang back, or the injury was worse than first thought.
4. Click “Reopen incident”, or “Keep closed” to stop.

The original close stamp is kept. A later close does not move it.

Only coordinators and the owner can close, reopen or re-grade an incident.

Recording the notification itself

When the registered manager has sent the statutory notification to CQC, or made a safeguarding referral, put that on the record rather than only in the resolution:

1. Click “Record notification” on the row. The button is there until both are recorded.
2. Choose “Which notification”: “CQC statutory notification” or “Safeguarding referral”. One already recorded is not offered again.
3. Set “Sent on”, today or earlier.
4. Fill in “What was sent”, for example the reference number and who took it.
5. Click “Record it”.

The row then reads “CQC notified (date) by (name)” or “Safeguarding referral (date) by (name)” with the line, on the log and on the client’s Incidents tab. The stamp names whoever recorded it and stays: a second record for the same notification is refused. Coordinators and the owner can record one.

On the client’s record

A client’s “Incidents” tab holds their own history, described as “What has happened to this client, newest first”, with the severity and status on each row. It is offered to everyone who reads the whole record: coordinators, the office and an inspector.

Every incident about a client also appears on their timeline, and in the subject access export.

On the quality report

Incidents are counted by week, severity and category on the “Quality” report, with the CQC-notifiable count and, beside it, how many were notified to CQC and how many safeguarding referrals were made. See Quality.