Quality & Safety Incident Reporting

A patient safety incident is any event or circumstance which could have resulted, or did result, in unexpected or normally avoidable harm to a patient receiving care. All safety incidents need to be reported as soon as it is safe to do so.

At this time, patient safety incident reporting follows former region practices. Most former regions use a 'form' and you can find the applicable form listed below by the appropriate former Health Authority.

Team members in the former Saskatoon Health Region call 306-655-1600. Regina and Cypress areas with electronic reporting systems will continue to access these mechanisms per the information below.

Resources

SHA Incident Classification for Severity Rating of Patient Safety Incidents

Quality & Safety has developed a new SHA Incident Classification Scale for Severity Rating of Patient Safety Incidents for use on all existing former RHA patient safety incident reports, starting April 1, 2024. It is based on best practice, and will help improve data analytics and learning about patient safety incidents across Health Networks and Integrated Health Areas.

The Incident Classification Scale is based on three different types of patient safety incidents: near miss, no harm incidents, and harmful incidents.

Near Miss: Incident did not reach the patient.
No Harm Incident: Incident reached the patient, but no discernable harm resulted.
Harmful Incident: Incident resulted in harm to the patient.

A Degree of Harm Code is used to classify the incident (Code 0 to 5), which refers to the severity and duration of harm, and any treatment implications resulting from the incident. The Code is assigned based on what is known about the patient’s actual condition at the time of reporting or review.

SHA Incident Classification Scale for Severity Rating of Patient Safety Incidents

Code	Definition
0	Near Miss: An incident that did not reach the patient. The incident could have resulted in adverse consequences, but because either by chance or through timely intervention, did not result in direct contact nor affect the patient.
1	No Harm: An incident that reaches the patient, and no evidence or symptoms of harm are detected, and no treatment is required.
2	Mild Harm: An incident that results in symptoms that are minimal and short-term, and where no or minor intervention is required (e.g., extra observation, physical examination, or minor treatment such as first aid).
3	Moderate Harm: An incident that results in symptoms, requiring professional or moderate medical intervention (e.g., clinical investigation, non-invasive surgery or procedure), an increased length of stay, and/or an increased level of care. Includes temporary harm or loss of function, where return to normal function is expected.
4	Severe Harm: An incident that results in symptoms requiring major medical intervention (e.g., major surgery, invasive surgery or procedure, life-saving intervention), shortening of life expectancy or causing permanent harm or long-term loss of function.
5	Death: Unexpected death not related to the natural or expected course of the patient's illness or underlying condition. Death was caused by or brought forward in the short-term by the incident.

On the existing former RHA patient safety incident reports, various team members are responsible for classifying the severity or seriousness of incidents. This ranges from the Reporter Writer, Supervisor or Person-In-Charge, Manager, or Safety Centre in Saskatoon. There is no change to who is responsible for incident classification.