Incident fields and limits

Every rule on this page is applied by PTRS at the moment you save. Nothing is checked on the screen before that, so the message you see is the one quoted here.

Creating an incident

PTRS needs	Required	What PTRS accepts	What depends on it
The site	Yes	Must be filled in. PTRS does not check that the site exists.	The site shown everywhere for this incident
The description	Yes	Up to 10,000 characters	The narrative, and the Details section of the written report
The reporting staff member	Yes	Must be a staff member in your organisation	Named on the first timeline entry
The type	No	One of the sixteen types below. Anything else silently becomes Other.	Whether the reporting clocks start
The severity	No	One of the five levels. Anything else silently becomes the lowest.	Whether the reporting clocks start
First aid given	No	Up to 2,000 characters	Shown on the incident page
Emergency medication given	No	Yes or no	If yes, the details below are required
Emergency medication details	When medication was given	Text	The record of what was given
EMS called	No	Yes or no	If yes, the time below is required
When EMS was called	When EMS was called	Date and time	The record of when EMS was contacted

You cannot set the status, which is always Draft; the incident time, which is always the moment of creation; or any OCCL or BGCA field, which PTRS works out. See How reporting deadlines are triggered.

A misspelt type or severity is not an error

An unrecognised type or severity is replaced with Other and the lowest severity, and the incident saves. Since those two decide whether a reporting clock starts, a slip in either produces an incident with no deadline and no warning. This only matters for someone creating incidents outside the wizard; the wizard sends neither.

Updating an incident

Six things can be changed after creation, and nothing else. Type, severity, site, date, time and description cannot be changed by any means.

Field	What PTRS accepts	If you leave it out
First aid given	Up to 2,000 characters	Unchanged
Emergency medication given	Yes or no	Unchanged
Emergency medication details	Required when medication was given	Unchanged, unless you also send whether medication was given, in which case it is replaced with whatever you sent, including nothing
EMS called	Yes or no	Unchanged
When EMS was called	Required when EMS was called	Unchanged, unless you also send whether EMS was called, in which case it is replaced
BGCA reported	Yes or no	Unchanged
When BGCA was reported	Required when BGCA was reported	Unchanged, unless you also send whether BGCA was reported, in which case it is replaced

An update that changes none of these is refused with "No fields to update." PTRS still records that the incident was touched.

Setting BGCA reported to yes moves the BGCA status from Pending to Reported. From any other BGCA status, the status is left alone.

People involved

PTRS needs	Required	What PTRS accepts
The incident	Yes	Must exist in your organisation
Whether the person is a child or a staff member	Yes	Member or Staff
The child	For a child	Must be a member record in your organisation
The staff member	For a staff member	Must be a staff record in your organisation
The role	Yes	Primary, Witness or Affected

Staff participants are recorded differently from children

Adding a child writes an involvement record, which is what the participant count and the people-involved section of the PDF are built from. Adding a staff member writes only a timeline entry. The screen looks the same either way, and the staff member will not appear in the list of people involved, the count, or the exported report. Name them in the description instead.

OCCL status

PTRS needs	Required	What PTRS accepts
The incident	Yes	Must exist
The new status	Yes	One of the eight OCCL statuses, in any capitalisation
A note	No	Stored on the timeline entry, not on the incident. No screen offers a box for it.

The written report

PTRS needs	Required	What PTRS accepts
The incident	Yes	Must exist
Extra context	No	Up to 5,000 characters, added as an Additional Context section. No screen offers a box for it.

Regenerating replaces the stored report outright.

Submitting and deleting

Action	Rule	Message when refused
Submit	The incident must be a Draft	Only incidents in Draft status can be submitted.
Submit, when two people submit at once	Checked again at the moment of saving	Incident could not be submitted, it may have already moved out of Draft.
Delete	The incident must be a Draft	Only incidents in Draft status can be deleted. Submitted incidents are protected by mandatory reporting rules.

Deleting a draft is permanent. The audit trail entry recording the deletion survives it.

Value lists

Incident type, sixteen values. The five in bold start the reporting clocks. PTRS spells each as one word on screen, without spaces.

Injury, Illness, Behaviour issue, Behavioural, Medical, Safety, Property damage, Security breach, Medication error, Allergic reaction, Elopement, Abuse, Neglect, Missing child, Emergency 911 called, Other.

The list has two overlapping pairs, Behaviour issue alongside Behavioural, and Injury and Illness alongside Medical, because it was merged from two earlier systems. Both members of each pair are accepted and neither is treated specially.

Severity, five levels, 1 to 5. The screens show levels 1 and 2 as Low, level 3 as Medium, level 4 as High and level 5 as Critical. Levels 4 and 5 start the reporting clocks.

Status: Draft, Open, Submitted, In progress, Under review, Resolved, Closed. PTRS creates incidents as Draft and submitting makes them Submitted. Nothing in Incidents sets any of the other five.

OCCL status: Not required, Pending, Reported, Submitted, Acknowledged, Under investigation, Overdue, Closed.

BGCA reporting status: Not required, Pending, Reported, Acknowledged, Overdue.

Participant role: Primary, Witness, Affected.

Follow-up status: Pending, Completed, Overdue.

Timeline entry kind: System, Manual, AI. Every entry Incidents writes is System.

Deadline settings

Three figures are settings that whoever looks after your PTRS can change:

Setting	Starts at	What it controls
OCCL deadline	24 hours	How long after the incident the OCCL deadline falls
BGCA deadline	24 hours	How long after the incident the BGCA deadline falls
Recently closed window	7 days	The window behind the Recently Closed figure

Ask what yours are set to before quoting the defaults to anyone.

Related

• How reporting deadlines are triggered
• Record health and safety details
• Who can do what in Incidents
• Incidents troubleshooting