This document aims to inform healthcare professionals and system funders or regulators about how the national sentinel events list has changed in the second edition, and the process that was undertaken to review and revise the list.

Sentinel events are a subset of adverse patient safety events that are wholly preventable and result in serious harm to, or the death of, a patient. The purpose of sentinel event reporting is to ensure public accountability and transparency and drive national improvements in patient safety.

The Commission’s Data Governance Framework specifies the obligations of the Commission with regard to data acquisition, maintenance, sharing/permissions, reporting and publication.

The Commission also develops and maintains a rolling three year Data Plan to ensure the implementation of its role in leading and coordinating safety and quality improvements across Australia. The Data Plan supports Commission’s Work plan by articulating its data functions and outlining potential data sources for use.

Two groupers have been developed to support the implementation of the hospital-acquired complications (HACs) list. These tools can be used by hospitals, health services and system managers to identify and monitor HACs.

These fact sheets, and other HACs resources released by the Commission, have been developed to support clinicians and others to reduce the occurrence and impact of HACs. 

SAMM specifications serve as indicative flags for records that may warrant review. Record level review may be required to identify the exact SAMM condition and category described, on top of the given code combinations.

Prepared by Melbourne EpiCentre in collaboration with Fiona Landgren and Carole Staley.

Prepared by Melbourne EpiCentre in collaboration with Fiona Landgren and Carole Staley

Version 3, released April 2019.

The core hospital-based outcome indicators (CHBOIs) contain a range of indicators which have been developed to enhance safety and quality reporting and feedback.