295.2050 Incident and Accident Reporting

The Incident and Accident reporting under 295.2050 includes directions for assisted living providers to report incidents and accidents to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH). LeadingAge Illinois put forth a bill that passed in 2025 which defines the reportable incidents and accidents a little more in depth to help providers in reducing the reporting burden. This bill has not been promulgated in rules yet, but we will include the law to understand the differences.

As it currently stands, assisted living providers are required to report serious incidents and accidents. Serious is defined as any incident or accident that causes physical or emotional harm or injury to a resident and excludes conditions that are due to general health or medical decline.

The reports should be made by emailing the department at [email protected] or as requested by the department within 24 hours of the incident or accident. A copy of the report that you made must be maintained by the program for one year after the date of the incident or accident, which state rules may dictate longer periods than just a year also if the report is part of the medical record.

The Assisted Living and Shared Housing Act was clarified in 2025, by rewording to a significant physical harm or injury or any situation where a resident requires outside emergent medical treatment as a direct result of the incident or accident. The language regarding a general medical or health decline remains in the act.

During discussions with IDPH, they will not specify what constitutes an incident or accident that is reportable and their interpretation of what is a reportable incident or accident is very broad.  Each of your incidents or accidents that you’re questioning whether it’s reportable needs to be reviewed to determine if it meets criteria. Incidents and accidents would include falls, burns, elopements, suicides, etc. When discussing this topic with IDPH, they’ve indicated that it also includes medication errors as they have the potential to be significant. This, however, does not always align with the information provided in the rule or act if there isn’t a negative outcome based on the medication error.

Finally, another item to note is that you’re able to report incidents via the online portal. This information should be maintained just as a paper report would be.