Reportable incidents to DHS
Unfortunately, there are profoundly 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 Virginia D mandates reporting any incident that affects the health, safety and wellbeing of a resident- check out the regulation below for how to handle these situations:
2800.16. Reportable incidents and conditions.
(a) A reportable incident or condition includes the following:
(1) The death of a resident.
(2) A physical act by a resident to commit suicide.
(3) An injury, illness or trauma requiring treatment at a hospital or medical facility. This does not include minor injuries such as sprains or minor cuts.
(4) A violation of a resident’s rights in §§ 2800.41—2800.44 (relating to resident rights).
(5) An unexplained absence of a resident for 24 hours or more, or when the support plan so provides, a period of less than 24 hours, or an absence of a resident from a special care unit.
(6) Misuse of a resident’s funds by the residence’s staff persons or legal entity.
(7) An outbreak of a serious communicable disease as defined in 28 Pa. Code § 27.2 (relating to specific identified reportable diseases, infections and conditions).
(8) Food poisoning of residents.
(9) A physical or sexual assault by or against a resident.
(10) Fire or structural damage to the residence.
(11) An incident requiring the services of an emergency management agency, fire department or law enforcement agency, except for false alarms.
(12) A complaint of resident abuse, suspected resident abuse or referral of a complaint of resident abuse to a local authority.
(13) A prescription medication error as defined in § 2800.188 (relating to medication errors).
(14) An emergency in which the procedures under § 2800.107 (relating to emergency preparedness) are implemented.
(15) An unscheduled closure of the residence or the relocation of the residents.
(16) Bankruptcy filed by the legal entity.
(17) A criminal conviction against the legal entity, administrator or staff that is subsequent to the reporting on the criminal history checks under § 2800.51 (relating to criminal history checks).
(18) A termination notice from a utility.
(19) A violation of the health and safety laws under § 2800.18 (relating to applicable laws).
(20) An absence of staff so that residents receive inadequate care as defined by the respective resident’s support plan.
(b) The residence shall develop and implement written policies and procedures on the prevention, reporting, notification, investigation and management of reportable incidents and conditions.
(c) The residence shall report the incident or condition to the Department’s assisted living residence office or the assisted living residence complaint hotline within 24 hours in a manner designated by the Department. The residence shall immediately report the incident or condition to the resident’s family and the resident’s designated person. Abuse reporting must also follow the guidelines in § 2800.15 (relating to abuse reporting covered by law).
(d) The residence shall submit a final report, on a form prescribed by the Department, to the Department’s assisted living residence office immediately following the conclusion of the investigation.
(e) If the residence’s final report validates the occurrence of the alleged incident or condition, the affected resident and other residents who could potentially be harmed or his designated person shall also be informed immediately following the conclusion of the investigation.
(f) The residence shall keep a copy of the report of the reportable incident or condition.
Pro Tip:
The Department of Human Services 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 complain call. Be proactive, do not hide anything and use these incident reports to continuously improve your practices.