Key messages
- All registered community health services (CHS) are required to report incidents to the Department of Health through the Victorian Health Incident Management System 2 (VHIMS 2) Minimum Dataset (MDS)
- The Department of Health is implementing a critical incident reporting pathway for registered community health services.
- The critical incident reporting pathway enables timely notification to the department when serious incidents occur.
- The critical incident reporting pathway will reduce the reporting burden for registered community health services and replaces the need for manual reporting.
Registered community health services in Victoria are required to report incidents to the Department of Health using the Victorian Health Incident Management System 2 (VHIMS2) Minimum Dataset . Previously, registered community health services were also required to complete manual reports for certain incident types in accordance with the Health Incident Reporting Instruction.
Critical incident reporting pathway
A critical incident reporting pathway for registered community health services has been developed to reduce the reporting burden for registered community health services as well as enable timely notification to the department when serious incidents occur.
The critical incident reporting pathway replaces the need for registered community health services to complete manual reports.
The critical incident reporting pathway provides a critical incident definition that aligns with the incident classifications in the VHIMS2 MDS. When an incident that meets that definition occurs, a report can be extracted directly from the community health service’s incident management system and submitted to the department, in lieu of a manual report.
Implementation of the critical incident reporting pathway
The critical incident reporting pathway is being implemented across registered community health services between January and June 2023.
More information about the critical incident reporting pathway is provided in the Critical incident reporting pathway for registered community health services – Implementation guidelines, available to VHIMS users through the VHIMS SharePoint site.
Please note the critical incident reporting pathway and the Implementation guidelines, are subject to change and will be reviewed and revised as required.
The introduction of near-real time reporting and the review of the VHIMS2 MDS by the Victorian Agency for Health , may also impact on the pathway in the future.
More information
For further information, please email the Community Performance and Governance team at community.health@health.vic.gov.au.
Note: The critical incident reporting pathway does not apply to integrated community health services. Integrated community health services are subject to the incident reporting requirements of their parent health service.
Reviewed 21 November 2023