DOH Provides Webinar on ACF Electronic Incident Report Process, Which Is Effective June 1st

The Department of Health (DOH) recently unveiled a new electronic process for Incident Reporting on the Health Commerce System (HCS) for adult care facilities (ACFs). To assist in implementation, LeadingAge NY requested that the Department conduct a webinar to walk through the process and answer provider questions. This webinar, held on May 20^th, was recorded and can be accessed here. Providers must use the electronic process starting June 1, 2021. DOH will not allow you to upload a written form; it must be submitted electronically. The system is currently available in the HCS. Members are encouraged to review the Dear Administrator Letter (DAL), manual, and webinar now and explore the report on the HCS in preparation for this transition. Here are a few highlights from the webinar:

The Department is updating information in the manual to provide fax numbers to the appropriate regional offices. Additionally, they will add the Assisted Living Program (ALP) to the level of care options.
Members are reminded to print a copy of the DOH 3123 and put it in the resident chart, in addition to the electronic submission. If a resident declines to comment, you must have documentation of that in your records along with the incident report.
Page 20 of the manual provides an option in the circumstance that you lose internet.
The electronic reporting process does include the ability to pull a report of a chronological listing of incident reports submitted.
The Department indicated that this process should be used for physical plant issues, unexpected or unscheduled interruption of critical services, etc. The Department indicated that you can indicate “no” or “N/A” in the fields that are not applicable to this circumstance.

As with any new process, there may be questions or challenges in implementation. Members are encouraged to let us know what your experience is as you use the new system so that we may provide feedback to DOH.

Contact: Diane Darbyshire, ddarbyshire@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8828