Mandatory Reporting Obligations

Mandatory reporting is a legal safety process. The RPN recognizes facts that activate a statute, protects the client from immediate harm, sends the required information to the authority named in that statute within its deadline, and documents the assessment and actions. Suspicion can be enough when the governing law uses a reasonable-grounds threshold; the RPN does not decide whether an allegation is substantiated. Ontario does not use one reporting route for every concern. The recipient and urgency depend on the person, setting, and event. A child-protection concern goes directly and immediately to a children's aid society. Specified harm in a long-term care home goes immediately to the Ministry of Long-Term Care Director, while specified harm in a retirement home goes immediately to the Retirement Homes Regulatory Authority Registrar. A disease of public health significance identified by a nurse while providing professional services to a person outside hospital inpatient or outpatient care goes as soon as possible to the local medical officer of health. A facility treating a gunshot wound makes an oral disclosure as soon as reasonably practicable to local...