About Incident Management Systems

An IMS records all incidents.

An incident is any event that causes harm or potential harm to a person receiving aged care or another person.

Key principles

• All incidents—occurred, alleged or suspected—must be recorded. 
• The IMS records incidents that involve people receiving aged care. This includes people with cognitive impairments like dementia.
• The IMS must include incidents where providers missed their duty of care. An example could be a skipped medication.

Near misses

The IMS should record near misses (also known as 'close calls'), including:

• injury
• illness
• danger to someone's health.

An IMS can take different forms depending on the provider:

• For small services, it could be a paper-based system with folders or a spreadsheet. 
• Larger, more complex services may have dedicated quality or risk management software.

Aged care workers and service managers should work together to ensure all staff can access the IMS, including those with accessibility needs.

Service managers must ensure their IMS includes effective reporting, management and prevention systems. This includes:

• processes to support effective management and efficient recording
• tracking tools to inform continuous improvement
• trend analysis and management
• visibility of incident types and severity
• real-time incident reporting.

Service managers must also regularly assess the IMS.

Your service should have the following IMS policies or procedures in place:

• Roles and responsibilities
• Identifying, recording and reporting risks
• Notifying others of incidents
• Providing support to those affected by an incident
• Reviewing and investigating incidents
• Other actions.

Roles and responsibilities

This policy or procedure should cover:

• identifying, managing, resolving and preventing incidents and near misses
• understanding care-related risks (as opposed to risks unconnected to care)
• procedures for notifying us of reportable incidents
• accessing the IMS
• training on using the IMS
• obligations for those delivering care and services, including subcontractors.

Identifying, recording and reporting risks

This policy or procedure should cover:

• definitions of incidents and near misses
• how to record information
• contact points and timeframes.

Notifying others of incidents

This policy or procedure should cover:

• who to notify
• how to notify others
• when to call the police or emergency services

When incidents occur, contacts could include:

• representatives of the person receiving aged care or other emergency contacts
• police or emergency services
• the Commission
• the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency or state and territory health departments
• the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.

Providing support to those affected by an incident

This policy or procedure should cover:

• how to involve people affected by the incident or their representatives when resolving an incident
• using open disclosure processes when things go wrong
• supplying people using aged care and their representatives with information about advocates.

Reviewing and investigating incidents

You must include a process for determining:

• whether the incident was preventable
• the quality of its management and resolution
• the notification of other entities
• whether an internal investigation needs to occur.

Other actions

The policy framework should outline the triggers for making changes following an incident, including:

• actions that could have prevented the incident or lessened its severity
• ongoing risks to people receiving aged care, visitors, workers and others
• preventing or minimising the chance of it happening again.

Changes might apply to:

• organisational or clinical governance
• individual or service-wide worker training
• education for people receiving aged care
• the service environment or equipment
• care and services for people receiving aged care.

For home services, your IMS policies should also outline:

• how each home service is different with unique risks
• how safety plans adapt to additional risks in diverse service environments.

The Finding policies and procedures tool helps keep track of your policy framework.

The Effective IMS checklist lists the requirements for an IMS.

The Worker readiness work tool tests how engaged workers are with their IMS and how well they understand it.

Knowing where to find critical information lets you act fast when incidents happen.

Incident management is everyone's responsibility, including non-care workers.

IMS training and education are essential for all workers.

All workers should understand:

• their specific responsibilities for incident management
• how to recognise incidents and near misses
• how to know if risks and incidents in home services are related to care
• how to assess, record, investigate and respond to incidents relative to the role
• how to support people affected by incidents
• how to use the IMS to improve services
• when to involve external bodies.

Providers should involve people receiving aged care and their representatives in IMS discussions. 

Their input can help to identify overlooked risks and incidents. 

It also improves risk prevention and management.

You can do this by:

• encouraging people receiving aged care to speak up about incidents. This is vital in home and community settings where risks may go unnoticed.
• supporting them in reporting risks and incidents, sharing information and finding solutions.

If you have questions about the IMS, call us on 1800 081 549. Our phone line is open Monday to Sunday from 9 am to 5 pm (AEST).

You can also reach us by email: sirs@agedcarequality.gov.au.

We provide workshops for aged care workers.

Workers can access our free Aged Care Learning Information Solution (Alis).

It has modules about incident management systems.

• Effective incident management systems: Best practice guidance

The information on this page offers general advice.

Please also take the time to learn and understand your legislative requirements.