# Incident reporting glossary

> Plain, sourced definitions of adverse events, near misses, sentinel events, QAPI, CAPA, F-tags, OSHA recordables, TRIR, DART and more.

Source: https://incidentkit.ai/glossary · Updated Oct 5, 2026

- [Adverse event](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/adverse-event): An adverse event is patient harm caused by care, not by the illness. Groups define it a bit differently, so say which one you use.
- [Near miss](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/near-miss): A near miss is an event that could have hurt someone but did not. Someone caught it in time, or it missed by chance. OSHA calls it a close call.
- [Sentinel event](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/sentinel-event): A sentinel event is a patient safety event that reaches a patient and causes death, severe harm or permanent harm. That is the Joint Commission's meaning.
- [Never event](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/never-event): Never events are serious patient safety events that should never happen, like surgery on the wrong body part. The NQF list has 29 of them.
- [Variance report](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/variance-report): A variance report is a hospital's record of care that went off plan, like a wrong dose. Many places treat it as an incident report.
- [Incident report](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/incident-report): An incident report is a written record of an unplanned event that hurt, or could have hurt, a person or property. It starts the review.
- [QAPI](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/qapi): QAPI (quality assurance and performance improvement) is the quality program CMS requires. Providers use data to track harm and fix root causes.
- [QAA committee](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/qaa-committee): The QAA (quality assessment and assurance) committee runs a nursing home's QAPI quality program. It meets at least every quarter, as CMS requires.
- [Performance improvement project](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/performance-improvement-project): A performance improvement project (PIP) is a focused effort to fix one specific problem. It uses data to find causes, test changes and measure results.
- [Root cause analysis](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/root-cause-analysis): Root cause analysis (RCA) finds why a serious event happened, so fixes hit causes, not symptoms. It looks at the system, not at blame.
- [Corrective and preventive action](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/corrective-and-preventive-action): CAPA (corrective and preventive action) fixes the cause of a problem, then checks that the fix worked. Healthcare rules often say corrective action.
- [Effectiveness review](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/effectiveness-review): An effectiveness review checks that a fix worked and the problem did not return. A measure and a date set in advance let the action close.
- [Just culture](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/just-culture): Just culture is a safety approach that treats honest error, risky shortcuts and reckless acts differently. Staff can report mistakes without fear.
- [Harm scale](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/harm-scale): A harm scale ranks how much harm an event caused, from none up to death. No scale is universal. Common ones are the NCC MERP index and the CMS grid.
- [Patient safety organization](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/patient-safety-organization): A patient safety organization (PSO) is a group HHS lists to collect and study safety data. Data sent to it can be legally protected.
- [F-tag](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/f-tag): An F-tag is a code CMS uses to cite nursing home survey findings, like F689 for accidents. Each tag links to a rule in 42 CFR Part 483.
- [Deficiency](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/deficiency): A deficiency is a failure to meet a Medicare or Medicaid rule. A surveyor, or inspector, lists it on Form CMS-2567 and nursing homes get a score.
- [Immediate jeopardy](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/immediate-jeopardy): Immediate jeopardy (IJ) means a provider's failure has caused, or will likely cause, serious harm or death. It is the most serious kind of deficiency.
- [CMS-2567](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/cms-2567): Form CMS-2567 lists each Medicare or Medicaid rule a provider missed. The provider replies on it with a plan to fix them. The public can see it.
- [Plan of correction](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/plan-of-correction): A plan of correction (PoC) is a provider's written answer to survey findings. It says how and by when the facility will fix each problem and keep it fixed.
- [Deemed status](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/deemed-status): Deemed status means CMS lets a provider pass an outside group's survey in place of a state survey. The group must be one CMS has approved.
- [Conditions for coverage](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/conditions-for-coverage): Conditions for coverage (CfCs) are health and safety rules for some Medicare suppliers, like surgery centers. Hospitals have CoPs, the same idea.
- [OSHA recordable injury](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/osha-recordable): A recordable injury is a new, work-related injury or illness that OSHA says you must log. Care beyond first aid, or lost work time, usually makes it one.
- [First aid (OSHA recordkeeping)](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/first-aid): For OSHA recordkeeping, first aid is only the care on its closed list, like bandages or cleaning a wound. First aid alone is not recordable.
- [DART rate](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/dart-rate): The DART rate counts OSHA cases with days away, restricted work or job transfer per 100 full-time workers. The formula is cases × 200,000 ÷ hours worked.
- [TRIR (total recordable incident rate)](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/trir): TRIR (total recordable incident rate) counts recordable injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers a year. OSHA calls it the total case rate.
- [LTIR (lost-time injury rate)](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/ltir): LTIR (lost-time injury rate) counts injuries that cost workdays per set block of hours. OSHA does not use the term, so confirm the formula before you compare.
- [Lost-time injury](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/lost-time-injury): A lost-time injury is a work injury or illness that keeps a worker home past the day it happened. OSHA's term for it is a days-away case.
- [PSIF (potential serious injury or fatality)](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/psif): PSIF means potential serious injury or fatality: an event that could have caused death or life-changing harm. It is a safety term, not an OSHA category.
- [Hierarchy of controls](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/hierarchy-of-controls): The hierarchy of controls ranks ways to reduce a hazard, from strongest to weakest. NIOSH puts removing the hazard first and protective gear last.
- [Lockout/tagout](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/lockout-tagout): Lockout/tagout (LOTO) means cutting a machine's power and locking or tagging the switch before repairs. OSHA's standard is 29 CFR 1910.147.
- [ASCQR (ASC Quality Reporting Program)](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/ascqr): ASCQR is the CMS quality reporting program for surgery centers. Centers that do not report take a 2.0 point cut in their Medicare payment update.
- [AAAHC](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/aaahc): AAAHC is a group that accredits, or formally approves, outpatient care sites like surgery centers and endoscopy centers. It began in 1979.
- [Joint Commission](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/joint-commission): The Joint Commission is a US group that accredits hospitals, outpatient, nursing care and home care sites. It also sets the Sentinel Event Policy.
- [Five whys](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/five-whys): Five whys is a way to find a root cause. Ask why a problem happened, then why again for each answer, until you reach a cause you can fix.
- [Fishbone diagram](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/fishbone-diagram): A fishbone diagram maps the possible causes of one problem on branches, like fish bones. Teams also call it a cause-and-effect or Ishikawa diagram.
- [Fault tree analysis](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/fault-tree-analysis): Fault tree analysis (FTA) starts from a bad outcome and maps the combinations of failures that could cause it. OSHA lists it for process hazard analysis.
- [Risk matrix](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/risk-matrix): A risk matrix scores a hazard by crossing how bad the outcome could be with how likely it is. The score sets which problems to fix first.
- [Safety data sheet](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/safety-data-sheet): A safety data sheet (SDS) is a 16-section document on a chemical's hazards and safe handling. Employers must keep one for each hazardous chemical they use.
- [Workers' compensation](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/workers-compensation): Workers' compensation is insurance that pays medical care and lost wages for employees hurt or made ill by work. Each state runs it for private employers.
- [FROI (First Report of Injury)](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/froi): FROI, the First Report of Injury, is the first report of a work injury sent to the workers' compensation insurer. It opens the claim.
- [Business associate agreement](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/business-associate-agreement): A business associate agreement (BAA) is the contract HIPAA requires when a vendor handles patient health data for a provider. It sets the vendor's duties.
- [Protected health information (PHI)](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/phi): Protected health information (PHI) is health data that identifies a person. HIPAA covers it when a provider, plan or their vendor holds it.
- [Medication error](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/medication-error): A medication error is a preventable event that may lead to wrong medication use or harm (NCC MERP). CMS adds its own wording for nursing homes.
- [Elopement](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/elopement): Elopement is when a patient or resident slips out of a facility without staff knowing, when supervision is needed. CMS cites it at F689.
- [Pressure injury](https://incidentkit.ai/glossary/pressure-injury): A pressure injury is skin and tissue damage from steady pressure, often over a bone. CMS treats it as the same as a pressure ulcer and cites F686.