Quality Management

Overview

Quality Management is the home of incident reporting, including SIRS (Serious Incident Response Scheme) flagging, plus your audits, policies and quality metrics. The page heading reads Quality Management. The cards count Total Incidents, Open and Resolved. The tabs are Incidents, Audits, Policies and Metrics. Only Administrators and Provider Admins can open this area.

Common tasks

Browse the incident register

1. Click Quality in the sidebar. The Incidents tab lists recent incidents.
2. For the full register, open the incidents page, headed Incident Management. It shows Incident #, Title, Type, Severity, Status, SIRS and Reported.
3. Type into Search incidents… to find one, and click a row to open it.

Report an incident

1. From the incident register, click Report Incident. The panel opens.
2. Under the incident details, enter a Title (required), the Type (Fall, Medication Error, Behavioral, Abuse/Neglect or Other) and the Severity (Low, Medium, High or Critical).
3. Set the Date (it starts as today), Time occurred and Location.
4. Tick SIRS Reportable (Serious Incident) if the Serious Incident Response Scheme requires you to report it. Tick NDIS Reportable if that applies. When in doubt, tick SIRS and confirm with your manager, because SIRS deadlines are strict.
5. Describe what happened in Description, and what was done straight away in Action taken.
6. Under Participants affected and Workers affected, tick the people involved.
7. Click Submit Report. You will see Incident reported.

You can also report an incident from a client’s Notes & activity tab. It lands in the same register.

Read an incident’s record

1. Open an incident from the register. The page shows:
   • Incident Details: type, category, date, Time occurred, location, description, action taken, and the names of the participants and workers involved.
   • Investigation: start and end dates and any notes.
   • Closure: the closing date and outcome, once the incident is closed.
   • Corrective Actions: agreed follow-up actions, when recorded.
   • Manage: the current status and the controls to change it (see below).
   • SIRS Report (SIRS-reportable incidents only, in amber): Priority, Notification Sent, Notification Date, Deadline and Reference.
   • Additional Info: when it was reported and the Due Date.
   • History: every status change, with who made it.
2. Open incidents also appear on the Dashboard and the Compliance dashboard until they are resolved.

Investigate and close an incident

Only an Administrator or Provider Admin can do this.

1. Open the incident. Under Investigation, type what you found in the note box and click Add note. You will see Note added. Each note is stamped with the date, time and your name.
2. Under Manage, choose a Status: Open, Under investigation, Resolved or Closed.
3. Enter a Note / closure outcome. It is required when you choose Resolved or Closed.
4. Click Update status. You will see Status updated, and History records the change.
5. Once closed, a Closure card shows the outcome, and the Open count on Quality goes down.

Flag or unflag an incident as SIRS or NDIS reportable

1. Open the incident. Under Manage, click Flag SIRS reportable (or Flag NDIS reportable).
2. For SIRS, a SIRS Report card appears with the Deadline. The register’s SIRS column changes to Yes.
3. To undo a flag, click Remove SIRS flag (or Remove NDIS flag).

Check the SIRS Deadline as soon as you flag an incident.

Manage audits

1. Click Quality, then the Audits tab. It lists Audit #, Title, Type, Status, Scheduled, Auditor and Score. Search with Search audits….
2. Click Add audit. Enter the Title and Scheduled date, choose the Type (Internal, External, Regulatory or Surveillance), and enter the Auditor. Leave Audit # blank to have one assigned. Click Add audit.
3. Set the Status as it moves along: Scheduled, In progress, Completed, Cancelled or Postponed. Add a Completed date and Score when done.
4. To change an audit, click its row, edit and click Save changes.

Scheduled audits appear under Upcoming Audits on the Compliance dashboard.

Manage policies

1. Click the Policies tab. It lists Policy #, Title, Category, Version, Status and Review Date. Search with Search policies….
2. Click Add policy. Enter the Title, choose the Category (Safety, Clinical, HR, Finance or Governance), set the Version and the Review date, and click Add policy.
3. Choose the Status: Draft, In review, Approved, Archived or Withdrawn.
4. Click a policy row to edit it.

A review date in the past is allowed, and the row shows “(overdue)”. Only Approved policies count as active on the Compliance dashboard.

Track quality metrics

1. Click the Metrics tab. Active metrics show as cards with the category, name, current value and Target. If there are none, it reads “No active metrics configured”.
2. Click Add metric. Enter the Name, Category, Unit (such as %, hours or count) and Target, and the Current value if you have it. Click Add metric.
3. Click a metric card to update its current value or change its target.

Tips

• Severity and SIRS Reportable are different questions. Severity is how bad it was. SIRS asks whether you must notify the regulator.
• An incident can be flagged as SIRS reportable after it is reported, so a missed tick at the start is fixable. Do it straight away, because deadlines run from the incident.
• You cannot resolve or close an incident without a note.
• You cannot delete incidents, audits, policies or metrics. You can only add and edit them.
• Policies, audits and metrics feed the Compliance dashboard, so keep review dates and statuses current.

Troubleshooting

• “No incidents recorded” - The register is empty or your search filtered everything out. Clear Search incidents….
• “Failed to report incident” - The save did not go through. Check Title and Severity are filled in and try again.
• “Add a closure note describing the outcome before closing this incident.” - Type the outcome in the Note / closure outcome box, then click Update status again.
• “Only an administrator can manage incidents.” - Changing status, notes and flags needs an Administrator or Provider Admin login.
• “Enter a note.” - The investigation note box was empty.
• I forgot to tick SIRS Reportable - Open the incident and click Flag SIRS reportable under Manage.
• An audit or policy will not save - Check the fields marked with a star are filled in. Leaving the title empty keeps the panel open without saving.
• “No audits recorded” or “No policies recorded” - Nothing has been added yet. Use Add audit or Add policy.