Reporting a Critical Incident

What is a critical incident?

On occasion, something unexpected can happen to a patient causing serious harm. A critical incident occurs when an incident is the result of care provided and not related to the patient’s underlying health condition, or usual risk in treating the disease. The incident results in unintended consequences, such as death, disability, injury or harm, unplanned admission to hospital, or unusual extension of a hospital stay.

Reporting a critical incident

St. Boniface Hospital takes these situations very seriously. Anyone can report a critical incident. If you believe a critical incident has occurred, report it by calling the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority’s Critical Incident Reporting Line, 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 204-788-8222. A trained counsellor will guide you through a series of questions to gather information about the incident. Callers may choose to report anonymously.

Working together to improve patient care

To encourage everyone to speak openly and frankly about what occurred, the critical incident review process is confidential. The goal of the review is to learn where we can make improvements. Recommendations from the review are focused on ways to improve care and prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.

For more information on reporting a critical incident, click here.