About Us

“The reporting of adverse events by staff is key to ensuring that we deliver safe care to our community each and every day,” says Joan.

Our Vault Reporting System enables staff to log incidents such as worker injuries, near misses and clinical incidents. Our Patient Safety Team can also log any complaints received directly from our community or those received via the Health and Disability Commission (HDC).

“Our reporting and reviewing of any adverse events and complaints we receive, enables us to identify where improvements can be made, and contributes to assessing the success of any improvements we’ve undertaken.”

Joan says all staff can easily access Vault, even when they’re out on the road. This means they can report incidents as they occur, giving managers and the Patient Safety Team the opportunity to respond to them accordingly. 

When we receive a complaint we work closely with our patients and at times their whānau to resolve any concerns they may have. “They are an important part of Wellington Free’s complaints and adverse events process,” says Joan.

“When we receive a complaint we send a response directly to the complainant while maintaining the privacy of their health information to anyone else involved.”

During a review of a major complaint, family and whānau are asked for their input into the review.  It is important we address any questions they would like answered about the event or complaint.

For our Patient Safety team, this year’s Aotearoa Patient Safety Day theme of getting through together means having a ‘just culture’ of no blame reporting and reviewing of adverse events and complaints.

 “This enables Wellington Free to continue towards a collaborative and co-operative model of Continuous Quality Improvement where patient safety is first and foremost” says Joan.