The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Executive Office of Health and Human Services
Department of Public Health
Division of Health Care Quality
99 Chauncy Street, 2nd Floor, Boston, MA 02111
617-753-8000

DEVAL L. PATRICK
GOVERNOR
TIMOTHY P. MURRAY
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR
JUDYANN BIGBY, MD
SECRETARY
JOHN  AUERBACH
COMMISSIONER	

Circular Letter: DHCQ 08-07-496

TO: 		Hospital Chief Executive Officers 
Risk Managers 

FROM: 	Paul Dreyer, Ph.D. 
Bureau Director 
		
DATE: 	July 24, 2008 

SUBJECT: 	Hospital Reporting of Serious Incidents (SREs)

This letter provides updated instructions for the reporting of Serious Reportable Events (SREs). This topic has been discussed previously in Circular Letters DHCQ 08-06-489 and DHCQ 07-12-478.  These updated instructions address two topics – coding of race and ethnicity, and the coding of the SRE itself.  These updated instructions should be used for cases reported on or after August 1, 2008.

Coding of Race and Ethnicity.  The new fax reporting form (attached) has three new fields, a race indicator, a Hispanic indicator, and an ethnicity indicator.  These fields are identical to the fields required by the Division of Health Care Finance and Policy (DHCFP), and the instructions therefore reference the DHCFP data specification.

Coding of the SRE.  To facilitate the coding of the appropriate SRE, we have included a checklist of the 28 SREs as part of the fax reporting form, so instead of writing in the SRE, we are now asking that you simply check the appropriate SRE on the form.

Please contact Lillian Jette at 617-753-8204 if you have any questions.

Attachments:

1.	Hospital Fax Reporting Form Directions
2.	Hospital Fax Reporting Form