The State of Florida, Agency for Health Care Administration, administers serious patient injury reporting, tracking, trending, and problem resolution programs in hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers, as authorized in Chapter 395.0197 F.S. The law also requires that licensed health care risk managers implement programs prescribed by statute to accomplish these processes, which include continuing quality assessment and improvement and assuring greater patient safety in each of these facilities. The main thrust of the programs is identifying incidents occurring in health care facilities, which have an outcome of patient injury and may reflect error in the course of the delivery of health care services.
Facilities are required to provide the Agency for Health Care Administration with two separate types of reports: Annual Reports and Code 15 Reports. Annual Reports outline all of the adverse events subject to mandatory reporting occurring during the previous calendar year. Code 15 Reports are due within 15 days of a reportable adverse event (though the Agency for Health Care Administration has the authority to grant extensions). Code 15 Reports require a detailed summary, analysis, and corrective action plan for each incident.
