The two clocks
When a reportable event happens at a California-licensed facility, two deadlines start at once. The telephone report is due within one (1) working day of the event. The written report is due as a written report within seven (7) days of the event. Both come from 9 CCR § 10561 (Reporting Requirements), and both run from the event itself — not from when it was discovered, escalated, or reviewed internally.
The number for the telephone report is (916) 322-2911, and the written report is made on the DHCS 5079 Unusual Incident Report. Keep a blank copy of the form where a night-shift supervisor can find it in under a minute, because the shift that has to make the call is rarely the shift that has done it before.
What is reportable
- Death of any resident from any cause
- Any injury requiring medical treatment related to the facility
- Communicable diseases listed in Title 17
- Poisonings
- Catastrophes (fire, flood, or other natural disaster)
- Fires or explosions on the premises
Read that list literally and report on the wide side. “Any injury requiring medical treatment related to the facility” covers more than staff instinctively flag as serious. The cost of an unnecessary report is a form; the cost of a missed one is a gap in the record with a date attached to it.
What to do in the first working day
This sequence is operational practice, not a regulatory requirement. The requirement is simply the call and the written report inside their deadlines.
- Stabilize, then write down the time. Record the actual time of the event before anything else. Every deadline here is measured from it, and reconstructed times are the weakest part of most incident files.
- Make the call. Telephone within one working day. Note who called, whom they reached, and when.
- Open the written report immediately. Start the DHCS 5079 the same day, while details are fresh, even though you have seven days to send it.
- Notify internally. Whoever signs the written report should not first hear about the event on day six.
- Log it. Add the event to your incident log with the event date, the call date, and the written-report date in three separate columns.
The log is the part that gets inspected
Any single incident is handled by whoever is on shift. The pattern across a year is what gets reviewed, and a current incident log is what a renewal packet is expected to show. Keep one log rather than one per program, and keep it in a form you can hand over without editing: date and time of the event, category, brief factual description, who was notified, date of the telephone report, date the written report was sent, and the follow-up action taken.
Write descriptions factually, without speculation about cause or fault. The log is a record of what happened and what you did about it, and its value comes almost entirely from having been written at the time.
Train for the deadline, not the form
Staff generally recognize an incident when they see one. What they do not know, at 2 a.m., is that a clock started. Put the one-working-day telephone deadline and the seven-day written deadline on the same page as the number (916) 322-2911, and make recognizing that clock part of orientation for every shift lead. California also requires an ongoing documented training program for staff (9 CCR § 10564 (Personnel Requirements)) — incident reporting is a natural recurring topic for it, and the attendance record then serves as evidence in two directions at once.
Keep it with the renewal file
“Incident log current” is one of the evidence items Renewal Radar tracks alongside a license renewal, because the two tend to be reviewed together. If you are assembling a renewal packet now, the renewal guide has the full checklist and the timeline that packet needs to hit.
Last reviewed July 31, 2026. Renewal Radar is an independent product of Teryli Systems LLC and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting for the California Department of Health Care Services or any government agency. Dates and amounts are computed from public sources for your convenience, are informational only, and are not legal or compliance advice. Reminders are a convenience, not a guarantee of delivery. You remain solely responsible for meeting every regulatory deadline.