Severity assessment code (SAC) 1 clinical incidents

Public hospital and health service notification of SAC 1 clinical incidents occurs via the Datix Clinical Incident Management System (CIMS). A number of User Guides are available to assist with use of Datix CIMS.

Private licensed and health care facilities and non-government organisations (in accordance with their licence or contract with WA Health) notify SAC 1 clinical incidents using the SAC 1 Clinical incident notification form (PDF 210KB) and sending it via email to SAC1.events@health.wa.gov.au

In WA, sentinel events are categorised as Severity Assessment Code 1 (SAC 1) clinical incidents. The reporting of SAC 1 clinical incidents is mandatory for:

• public hospitals
• all private licensed health care facilities
• nongovernment organisations (in accordance with their license or contract with WA Health).

As outlined in the Clinical Incident Management Policy 2019 the key timeframes are:

• to submit completed investigation reports which are due within 28 working days of notification to the Patient Safety Surveillance Unit
• all SAC 1 recommendations must be both implemented and evaluated within six months (182 calendar days) of the investigation report submission
• an evaluation of SAC 1 recommendations must also be forwarded to PSSU within those six months (182 calendar days) of the investigation report submission.

See the closing the loop page for more detail about the evaluation of recommendations.

CIM Policy Pack – Resources

• Clinical Incident Management Policy 2019
• Clinical Incident Management Guideline 2019 (PDF 1MB)
• Clinical Incident Management Toolkit 2019 (PDF 913KB)

Guides

• Severity Assessment Code (SAC) Summary Table (PDF 81KB)
• Reporting of healthcare-associated Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections as a SAC 1 incident (PDF 500KB)
• Guideline for the Investigation of Multi-Site clinical incidents (PDF 606KB)
• Guidance for SAC1 Mental Health Clinical Incident Investigations (PDF 384KB)
• SAC 1 clinical incident investigations - Roles and responsibilities (PDF 500KB)
• SAC 1 clinical incident investigations – Consumer friendly document (PDF 2MB)
• SAC 1 clinical incident investigations – Consumer friendly document (e-form) (PDF 2MB)
  

Forms

• SAC 1 Clinical incident notification form (PDF 210KB)
• SAC 1 Clinical incident investigation report (Word 127KB)
• SAC 1 Clinical incident evaluation of recommendations template (Word 20KB)

More information

Patient Safety and Surveillance Unit
Email: pssu@health.wa.gov.au