Incident in healthcare services
Unforeseen serious incidents
-Automatic translation
Mandated reporting of serious unforeseen incidents
The Medical Director of Health and Public Health Act states the obligation to report unforeseen incidents in health services. Article 10 states:
"Healthcare facilities, self-employed healthcare practitioners, and others who provide healthcare services must notify the Medical Director of Health without delay of any unforeseen incident which has caused or could have caused serious harm to a patient, such as death or grave disablement. The patient shall also be informed of the unforeseen incident without unnecessary delay, and his/her closest relatives where applicable.
The Medical Director of Health shall investigate such cases in order to find an explanation for them and to ensure as far as possible that they do not recur. The Medical Director of Health shall be provided with the information and documents he/she deems necessary in the investigation of the case. The Medical Director of Health shall have ready access to healthcare facilities and premises of self-employed healthcare practitioners for the purposes of investigation."
Furthermore, the Act states that when an unforeseen death occurs "at a healthcare facility or other place where healthcare service is provided, which is regarded as probably attributable to error, negligence or a mishap in treatment or preventive measures with respect to an illness", this shall be reported to the police in accordance with the provisions of the Act on Death Certificates, Autopsies, etc.
What is the process following the notification of an unforeseen serious incident?
The Directorate of Health investigates notifications of serious unforeseen incidents in the health service as quickly as possible. Notifications are prioritized according to the occasion and capacity at any given time. The extent of the investigation varies depending on the nature of the notification, but the usual investigation time is 3 -18 months.
Specialists from the Directorate of Health, in particular physicians and nurses, are responsible for investigating serious unforeseen incidents.
The Directorate of Health may also follow up on a case with a follow-up audit.
Service provider
Directorate of Health