[4] In 2002, all states and territories have agreed to contribute to a set of 8 categories of the National Sentinel Events (NSEs).
[1] The report of serious clinical incidents including SE are mandatory for all public hospitals and all private licensed health care facilities across Australia.
[5] While each state and territory have their own health department to oversee and investigate all clinical incidents, the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care is responsible for managing all the incident happened in Australian hospitals, clinics and other communities healthcare facilities in order to improve patient safety.
In Western Australia, Severity Assessment Codes are used in WA health systems to determine the level of a clinical incidents.
[7] All states and territories have agreed the 10 categories of sentinel event which include: While some state and territory may have additional category, such as in Victoria has added category 11 of “All other adverse patient safety events resulting in serious harm or death.” Australian enjoy high-quality healthcare services and one of the best healthcare systems in the world with most incidents recorded are of minor or no harm, a very low rate of medical incidents causing significant harm to patients.
[9][10] Most of the incidents are falls, concerning behavior and skin integrity such as pressure injuries which result in minor or no harm.
This data collection can helps identify and recognize areas for improvement which aims to prevent similar incidents from happening again.