You are here:
Index » Appendix IV: incident severity rating and reporting » Queensland

Queensland

The QLD public hospitals use a clinical incident reporting system (PRIME) for clinical incident reporting. The incidents are identified and reported according to a SAC. The SAC is dependent on the consequence of the incident on the patient and has three scores:

  • SAC1: Death or permanent loss of function
  • SAC2: Patient with temporary loss of function
  • SAC3: Patient with minor or no injury.

Queensland Health has implemented a joint NBA/QLD Tool to help both public and private hospitals with haemovigilance data collection and reporting. When reporting adverse transfusion events using the new tools, the events are assessed and scored for outcome severity using a Grading and a SAC rating. The four ratings of the Grading match closely to the SAC scores and align exactly with the clinical outcome severity defined in the ANHDD.

Table 42: QLD Grading, SAC, and ANHDD clinical outcome severity
Grading SAC ANHDD
Grade 0 No morbidity SAC3 No morbidity
Grade 1 Minor morbidity SAC3 Minor morbidity
Grade 2 Severe morbidity SAC2 Severe morbidity
Grade 3 Life threatening SAC1 Life threatening
Grade 4 Death SAC1 Death
n/a Outcome not available   Outcome not available

Reporting requirements for SAC incidents, sentinel events and reportable events

Public health facilities

SAC1, sentinel and reportable events:

  • Health services must report all SAC1 and sentinel events to the QLD Health Patient Safety Unit (PSU) within one business day of a service becoming aware of the incident.
  • An analysis must be performed for the reported SAC1 and sentinel incidents.
  • The analysis report shall be submitted to the PSU within 90 calendar days of the incident being reported.
  • Mandatory formal open disclosure is activated and clinician disclosure performed for SAC1 events.
  • Defined reportable event notifications must be sent to the Health Ombudsman within 15 business days under s26 of the Health Ombudsman Act 2013.
  • Under the Hospital and Health Boards Act 2011, if RCA of a reportable event is conducted, documentation needs to be submitted to the commissioning authority that appointed the RCA team members as soon as is practical after completion of the report. The commissioning authority must provide the report to the Health Ombudsman as soon as is practical after receiving the report.

SAC2 and SAC3 incidents

  • Hospital line managers work with their teams to identify and implement corrective actions rapidly, without requiring an elaborate process.
  • Open disclosure is required if harm occurs.

Licensed private health facilities

Sentinel and reportable events

  • Private health facilities are requested to report defined sentinel events to the Chief Health Officer within two working days of a service becoming aware of the incident.
  • Defined reportable event notifications must be sent to the Health Ombudsman within 15 business days under s26 of the Health Ombudsman Act 2013.
  • Under the Hospital and Health Boards Act 2011, if RCA of a reportable event is conducted, documentation needs to be submitted to the commissioning authority that appointed the RCA team members as soon as is practical after completion of the report. The commissioning authority must provide the report to the Chief Health Officer and the Health Ombudsman as soon as is practical after receiving the report.

Clinical incidents

  • Hospital line managers work with their teams to identify and implement corrective actions rapidly, without requiring an elaborate process.
  • Open disclosure is required if harm occurs.
Back to Top