Glossary
Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS)
The Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) is the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission’s scheme requiring aged care providers to manage, and to report to the Commission, incidents in defined serious categories.
What the scheme asks of a provider
SIRS has two parts. The first is an incident management system: a provider must identify, record, assess and respond to incidents, and use what it learns to prevent them. The second is reporting: incidents in the defined serious categories must be notified to the Commission, with the priority and timeframe set by the category.
Categories, thresholds and timeframes are set by the regulator and change; confirm the current requirements with the regulator for your sector before acting on a real case.
Where providers come unstuck
The reporting side gets the attention, but the system side is where findings tend to come from: an incident that was not recorded at the time, an assessment made in a hallway and written up later, or a corrective action that was agreed and never closed. A defensible record captures the decision when it was made, by name, and shows the follow-through.
Sources and references
This entry describes the term in general. The regulator’s own site is the authority for your service, and requirements change.
Related
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