All incidents, near misses and hazards must be reported to Subee Office straight away. Incidents are a key quality indicator tool, are used to improve service delivery and inform policy and procedural change and corrective action. All incident reports are treated via Subee Incident Management Policy with confidentially and with urgency.
Definitions
Incident: An Incident is defined as a specific event, near miss, or deviation from procedure that may result in injury (minor or major) or death; damage to private or public property; or risk to the business in terms of disruption which may impact systems and operations, funding, liability, or reputation
Hazard: Anything or event that has the potential to cause harm, injury, illness to a person/s, or to property.
Near miss: An incident that could have resulted in an injury or illness, danger to health or damage to property.
Critical Incident: Any event which causes disruption to the business, creates significant danger or risk or which creates a situation where clients and/or employees, feel unsafe, vulnerable and under stress. It is highly subjective and in some instances the perception of what is critical may differ from one person to the next. Examples include (but are not limited to):
- An immediate threat of harm to the client and/or care worker.
- A clinical incident or accident (including motor vehicle) in which the client was harmed.
- Any incident which involved an emergency service (police, fire, ambulance, SES).
- Any suspected or witnessed abuse or neglect.
Reportable Incidents are incidents (including allegations) that result in:
- the death of a client
- serious injury of a client
- abuse or neglect of a client
- unlawful sexual or physical contact with, or assault of, a client
- sexual misconduct committed against, or in the presence of, an NDIS participant, including grooming of a client for sexual activity
- the unauthorised use of a restrictive practice in relation to a client
There are five types of restrictive practices:
- seclusion,which is the sole confinement of a person with disability in a room or a physical space at any hour of the day or night where voluntary exit is prevented, or not facilitated, or it is implied that voluntary exit is not permitted
- chemical restraint,which is the use of medication or chemical substance for the primary purpose of influencing a person’s behaviour. It does not include the use of medication prescribed by a medical practitioner for the treatment of, or to enable treatment of, a diagnosed mental disorder, a physical illness, or a physical condition
- mechanical restraint,which is the use of a device to prevent, restrict, or subdue a person’s movement for the primary purpose of influencing a person’s behaviour but does not include the use of devices for therapeutic or non-behavioural purposes
- physical restraint, which is the use or action of physical force to prevent, restrict or subdue movement of a person’s body, or part of their body, for the primary purpose of influencing their behaviour. Physical restraint does not include the use of a hands-on technique in a reflexive way to guide or redirect a person away from potential harm/injury, consistent with what could reasonably be considered the exercise of care towards a person
- environmental restraint, which restricts a person’s free access to all parts of their environment, including items or activities.