Patient Incident Management in Safety Learning System
Patient incidents - accidents, incidents, near-misses in health care: How we report, investigate, prevent and take responsibility for mishaps
SA Health is committed to improving the safety and quality of patient care and achieving the best patient outcomes possible.
The Safety Learning System is an application that enables all SA Health services to record, manage, investigate and analyse patient and worker incidents as well as consumer feedback .It is also used for capturing information about security services and to record formal notifications such as those for coronial matters or medical malpractice.
The purpose of each of the SLS modules, and which legislation they refer to, is described in the table of Key SLS Modules (PDF 92KB).
Any staff member with an SA Health HAD login can record an incident into SLS.
Skip to sections of information using the corresponding links below:
Benefits of SLS for the consumer and SA Health services includes:
Staff use SLS in a variety of ways depending on their role and responsibilities. There are guides and training to assist users who:
Some SLS data is also presented on the QIP Hub.
SLS has a number of modules for different purposes and types of incidents. Each has information and resources to assist users.
Everyone providing services on behalf of SA Health must record all patient related incidents, including near misses, into SLS. All incidents reported into SLS are reviewed and serious incidents undergo more detailed investigation.
Incident management and review is a requirement under SA Health policy (PDF 1.9MB) and the National Safety and Quality Heath Service Standards.
Answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about reporting patient incidents (PDF 103KB) are available.
Further information is available on the Patient incidents in Safety Learning System page.
Work Health and Safety (WHS) reporting into SLS ensures a standardised process to comply with legal requirements and to provide data to support future hazard control and WHS prevention programs.
Information in WHS incident reports on SLS is governed by the Work Health and Safety Act 2012 (SA)
All workers are encouraged to report Work Health and Safety incidents including:
Further information is available on the Work Health and Safety incidents in Safety Learning System page.
A security incident is any event or circumstance that resulted in a request for emergency or non-emergency security attendance. These include when any of the Emergency Codes are called.
The reporting and review of both emergency and non-emergency security incidents to SLS will contribute to improving safety for patients, workers and visitors.
There are legislative and other requirements to keep records of when these incidents occur.
Further information is available on the Security incidents in Safety Learning System page.
Consumer feedback (including complaints, compliments, suggestions and advice) are recorded and managed in SLS to drive improvement in the quality of health care services provided and enable the identification of trends and risk. It also enables health services to ensure that they are responding in a timely manner to the concerns of the consumers.
There is requirement under Consumer Feedback Management Policy Directive (PDF 143KB) and the National Safety and Quality Heath Service Standards to record all consumer feedback.
The Notifications module provides a mechanism for nominated SA Health managers to record details about notifiable incidents. These include deaths (under requirements of the Coroners Act 2003), potential medical malpractice and alleged sexual assault or misconduct incidents.
Coroners and Medical Malpractice notifications are reviewed by SA Health's Legal Governance and Insurance Services Unit (ISU) and referred on to SAICORP as required.
These notifications do not include those required by SafeWork or Public Health notifications.
To find SLS on your SA Health computer, click Start > All Programs > Corporate programs > SAH Applications > Safety Learning System
Any staff member with an SA Health HAD login can record an incident into SLS. Undergraduates/students are encouraged to learn how to record incidents into SLS, but the Clinical supervisor must be entered under ‘Other people involved’ as the ‘Reporter of the incident’.
For a list of recent and upcoming SLS updates and outages, see the Safety Learning System Notices page.
All queries should be directed in the first instance to the relevant SLS local site administrator in the following:
Contact details for these staff can be found on the relevant SLS web page.
Common types of queries include:
If you have any recommendations for changes to SLS, please complete all sections of the Change Request Form (PDF 29KB) and send to local Safety and Quality Manager. Prior to submitting the form, local consultation with all potential affected users of the requested change must occur. Affected users include administrators of other SLS modules, WHS managers, committees and Safety and Quality governance.
Change requests for the Patient Incident module are reviewed by the SLS Change Request Advisory Group (Terms of Reference) (PDF 45KB).
A separate WHS Change Request form located on the Work Health and Safety incidents in Safety Learning System page.
SLS Management Team
Telephone: (08) 8226 6177 / (08) 8226 6196
Email: Safetylearningsystem@sa.gov.au