Victorian sentinel events guide

This guide has been prepared to help health services in Victoria fulfil their obligations when managing and reporting sentinel events.

Sentinel events are broadly defined as wholly preventable adverse patient safety events that result in serious harm or death to individuals. All health services are required to report adverse patient safety events in accordance with the Australian national sentinel event list.

The national list provides guidance on 10 main event categories. But it is not comprehensive; some sub-categories of adverse patient safety events fall outside the 10 main categories.

This Victorian guide has been prepared to help fill in the gaps – to help Victorian health services and their staff manage sentinel events not covered in detail in the Australian national list. As such, this guide should serve as a supplement to the national list, not a substitute for it.

We've also developed a poster for you to display in your health service and help ensure staff are familiar with the 11 sentinel event categories.