Unfortunately, there are very serious incidents and accidents that will occur in your community no matter the precautions you take to avoid it. It could be as simple as a resident taking a fall while being involved in your activity programming all the way to an attack on a resident by a staff member or another resident. The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals mandates reporting any incident that affects the health, safety, and well being of a resident- check out the regulation below for how to handle these situations:
- 6871. Incident and Accident Reports
- An ARCP shall have written procedures for the reporting and documentation of accidents, incidents, and other situations or circumstances affecting the health, safety, or well-being of a resident or resident.
The procedures shall include:
- a provision that the director or his/her designee shall be immediately verbally notified of accidents, incidents, and other situations or circumstances affecting the health, safety, or well-being of a resident or residents; and
- a provision that staff shall be trained on the reporting requirements.
- An ARCP shall report to HSS any incidents suspected of involving:
- abuse;
- neglect;
- misappropriation of the personal property regardless of monetary value; or
- injuries of unknown origin. Injuries of unknown origin are defined as:
- the source of the injury was not observed by any person or the source of the injury could not be explained by the resident; or
- the injury is suspicious because of the extent of the injury or the location of the injury (e.g., the injury is located in an area not generally vulnerable to trauma).
- The initial report of the incident or accident is due within 24 hours of occurrence or discovery of the incident.
- After submission of the initial 24-hour report, a final report shall be submitted within five business days regardless of the outcome.
- Report Contents. The information contained in the incident report shall include, but is not limited to the following:
- circumstances under which the incident occurred;
- date and time the incident occurred;
- where the incident occurred (bathroom, apartment, room, street, lawn, etc.);
- immediate treatment and follow-up care;
- name and address of witnesses;
- date and time family or representative was notified;
- symptoms of pain and injury discussed with the physician; and
- signatures of the director, or designee, and the staff person completing the report.
- When an incident results in the death of a resident, involves abuse or neglect of a resident, or entails any serious threat to the resident’s health, safety, or well-being, and ARCP director or designee shall:
- immediately report verbally to the director and submit a preliminary written report within 24 hours of the incident to the department;
- notify HSS and any other appropriate authorities, according to state law, and submit a written notification to the above agencies within 24 hours of the suspected incident;
- immediately notify the family or the resident’s representative and submit a written notification within 24 hours;
- immediately notify the appropriate law enforcement authority in accordance with state law; 5. take appropriate corrective action to prevent future incidents and provide follow-up written report to all the above persons and agencies as per reporting requirements; and
- document its compliance with all of the above procedures for each incident and keep such documentation (including any written reports or notifications) in the resident’s file. A separate copy of all such documentation shall be kept in the provider’s administrative file.
The DHH takes these matters very seriously. You do not want to be in a situation where you did not file an incident report and have a surveyor come in to investigate this incident based upon a complaint call. Be proactive, do not hide anything, and use these incident reports to continuously improve your practices.