SECTION 448.509. Incident Reporting

(a) The facility shall report to the Commission's investigations division, all allegations of client abuse, neglect, and exploitation. Acts constituting client abuse, neglect and exploitation are specifically described in §148.703 of this title (relating to Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation).

(b) The facility shall complete an internal incident report for all client incidents, including:

(1) a violation of a client rights, including but not limited to, allegations of abuse, neglect and exploitation;

(2) accidents and injuries;

(3) medical emergencies;

(4) psychiatric emergencies;

(5) medication errors;

(6) illegal or violent behavior;

(7) loss of a client record;

(8) personal or mechanical restraint or seclusion;

(9) release of confidential information without client consent;

(10) fire;

(11) death of an active outpatient or residential client (on or off the program site);

(12) clients absent without permission from a residential program;

(13) suicide attempt by an active client (on or off the program site);

(14) medical and psychiatric emergencies that result in admission to an inpatient unit of a medical or psychiatric facility; and

(15) any other significant disruptions.

(c) The incident report shall be completed within 24 hours of the occurrence of an incident on-site, or within 24 hours of when the facility became aware of, or reasonably should have known of an incident that occurred off-site. The incident report shall provide a detailed description of the event, including the date, time, location, individuals involved, and action taken.

(d) The individual writing the report shall sign it and record the date and time it was completed.

(e) All incident reports shall be stored in a single, separate file.

(f) The facility shall have a designated individual responsible for reviewing incident reports and all incidents should be evaluated through the quality management process to determine opportunities to improve or address program and staff performance.

Source Note: The provisions of this §448.509 adopted to be effective September 1, 2004, 29 TexReg 2020; transferred effective September 1, 2004, as published in the Texas Register September 10, 2004, 29 TexReg 8842