World Patient Safety Day is celebrated on 17 September each year, and calls for global solidarity and concerted action by all countries and international partners to improve patient safety. This year’s theme, “Improving Diagnosis for Patient Safety,” focuses on the essential role of accurate and timely diagnoses in improving patient safety.
During the week of World Patient Safety Day, we take a closer look at one of the tools used at Northern Health to record and disseminate data, providing opportunities to improve overall patient safety.
The Victorian Health Incident Management System (VHIMS) is a database used to record hazards, harm, or potential harm, to patients and staff, and is used by all Victorian public health services. VHIMS also collects data on MET calls and Code Blue responses.
Staff can report using the incident module, while patients or relatives report concerns via patient experience in the feedback module. Each incident or feedback is distributed to a manager for investigation and comment. The completed review is checked for data accuracy and closed by the Quality and Safety Team. The data is assigned to a category of care that feeds into the organisation’s clinical review structure, such as clinical deterioration, falls, violence and aggression or medication. Specialist groups within Northern Health then use incident data to improve patient care.
“VHIMS is a crucial platform supporting the quest for patient safety and an open safety culture,” explains Clare McCarthy, Director, Quality, Safety and Patient Experience.
Mandy Maberly, Clinical Governance Coordinator and Baneet Bhasin, VHIMS System Administrator, are key users of VHIMS and know all too well the important role it plays in improving overall quality and safety at Northern Health.
Mandy’s role is to check the content of each incident, ensuring the level of harm and event type entered into the system matches the description, assign the appropriate National Standard to ensure distribution to specialty groups, and escalate any concerns that may be raised by her review.
“I look for trends or patterns in reports that may indicate a wider issue and collate this data into reports for review,” says Mandy.
“As an organisation, we are alert and responsive to clinical incidents. We are committed to learning what went well and not so well, and identifying improvements that can be made.”
VHIMS data populates many of Northern Health’s scorecards/databases used for internal and external reporting. All incidents entered in VHIMS are reported to the Victorian Agency for Health Information (VAHI). This is a central body for the collection and review of incidents to drive state-wide improvements in quality and safety.
Baneet is the VHIMS System Administrator, whose role involves managing upgrades and system enhancements, tailoring them to Northern Health’s evolving needs and overall performance improvements.
“I ensure proper user access and permissions, making sure staff have the appropriate level of control. Regular user training sessions are also part of my role to help staff navigate the system efficiently. I also configure notifications and generate reports to keep teams updated about incidents occurring in their areas, ensuring timely responses,” says Baneet.
“My focus is on keeping the system streamlined, secure, and responsive to support high-quality patient care.”
Clare explains, “Baneet is the techie, making sure the storybook contains all the parts, while Mandy is the super sleuth piecing together all the parts to tell the story.”
