{"id":"F2025L01651","name":"Health Insurance (Quality Assurance Activity – Emergency Medicine Events Register (EMER)) Declaration 2025","slug":"health-insurance-quality-assurance-activity-emergency-medicine-events-register-emer-declaration-2025","collection":"legislative_instrument","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":null,"makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":443124,"registerId":"F2025L01651-fast-fetch-1775958036956","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-12","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Health Insurance (Quality Assurance Activity – Emergency Medicine Events Register (EMER)) Declaration 2025","content":"---\nmeta-content-style-type: text/css\nmeta-content-type: application/xhtml+xml; charset=utf-8\n---\n\n![Commonwealth Coat of Arms of Australia](image.001.jpeg)\n\n \n\nHealth Insurance (Quality Assurance Activity – Emergency Medicine Events Register (EMER)) Declaration 2025\n\nI, MICHAEL KIDD, delegate for the Minister for Health, Disability and Ageing make the following declaration under section 124X of the Health Insurance Act 1973.\n\nDated 2 December 2025\n\n\n\n\nProfessor Michael Kidd AO   Chief Medical Officer\n\nDepartment of Health, Disability and Ageing\n\n \n\nContents\n\nPart 1—Preliminary\n\n1  Name\n\n2  Commencement\n\n3  Authority\n\n4  Repeal\n\n5  Schedule\n\nSchedule 1—Description of quality assurance activity\n\n1  Name of activity\n\n2  Description of activity\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nPart 1—Preliminary\n\n1  Name\n\nThis instrument is the Health Insurance (Quality Assurance Activity – Emergency Medicine Events Register (EMER)) Declaration 2025\n\n2  Commencement\n\n(1) Each provision of this instrument specified in column 1 of the table commences, or is taken to have commenced, in accordance with column 2 of the table. Any other statement in column 2 has effect according to its terms.\n\n \n\n- Commencement information\n- Column 1 Column 2 Column 3\n- Provisions Commencement Date/Details\n- 1. The whole of this instrument The day after this instrument is registered.\n\n\nNote: This table relates only to the provisions of this instrument as originally made. It will not be amended to deal with any later amendments of this instrument.\n\n(2) Any information in column 3 of the table is not part of this instrument. Information may be inserted in this column, or information in it may be edited, in any published version of this instrument.\n\n3  Authority\n\nThis instrument is made under subsection 124X(1) of the Health Insurance Act 1973.\n\n4  Repeal\n\n \n\nThis instrument is repealed when it ceases to be in force in accordance with subsection 124X(4) of the Health Insurance Act 1973.\n\n5  Schedule\n\nThe quality assurance activity described in the Schedule to this declaration is, to the extent that the quality assurance activity relates to health services provided in Australia, declared to be a quality assurance activity to which Part VC of the Health Insurance Act 1973 applies.\n\n \n\n\n\n\nSchedule 1—Description of quality assurance activity\n\n \n\n1  Name of activity   \n\nEmergency Medicine Events Register (EMER)\n\n \n\n2  Description of activity\n\n \n\nThis quality assurance activity is a clinical incident reporting system that captures information via a secure online website hosted at www.emer.org.au. The system provides for emergency medical practitioners, emergency medicine trainees and allied health professionals practising in Australia, as well as health care consumers, to enter incidents that resulted in an adverse outcome or 'near-miss' event. Participation in the database is voluntary, anonymous and confidential.\n\nThe EMER is conducted by the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM).\n\n \n\nThe data entered into the EMER is recorded in a database managed by ACEM. Users of the EMER provide information about incidents in response to close-ended and open-ended questions.\n\n \n\nThe data captured in the EMER is de-identified by a designated data custodian appointed by ACEM and is aggregated and analysed in detail to inform system improvements in emergency medicine practice in the following ways:\n\n•          release of de-identified, aggregated information to members of the emergency medicine profession who request specific categories of EMER data for quality assurance research activities;\n\n•          presentation of de-identified, aggregated results at state, national and international conferences, workshops and webinars that have an emergency medicine, patient safety and quality or other relevant focus;\n\n•          presentation at events to promote EMER, including patient safety issues identified by EMER, learnings and corrective strategies;\n\n•          publication on the ACEM website, in member newsletters and in research articles in scientific peer reviewed journals on de-identified, aggregated findings, learnings and corrective strategies; and\n\n•          inform updates to ACEM's emergency medicine training program curricula, clinical practice policies and standards.\n\n \n","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"flash_summary_failed":{"failed":true,"reason":"A positive credit balance is required for all requests, including BYOK, so fallback providers remain available. Add credits at https://vercel.com/d?to=%2F%5Bteam%5D%2F%7E%2Fai%3Fmodal%3Dtop-up to continue.","source":"analysis-cron"},"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This declaration serves its original intended purpose exactly as designed. Section 124X of the Health Insurance Act 1973 specifically provides for ministerial declarations that quality assurance activities are covered by Part VC protections. The instrument simply identifies EMER as such an activity and describes its function. There is no scope creep or expansion beyond the statutory mechanism's original design."},"complexity_factors":["Very short instrument (approximately 2 pages of substantive content)","Only 5 defined sections in Part 1, plus a brief Schedule with 2 items","No nested exceptions or conditional logic beyond standard commencement provisions","Single cross-reference to section 124X of the Health Insurance Act 1973","Straightforward declaratory structure: identifies the activity, describes it briefly, and declares it covered by Part VC protections","No operative provisions creating obligations or offences—merely descriptive and declaratory"],"plain_english_summary":"The declaration officially recognises the Emergency Medicine Events Register (EMER), run by the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) at emer.org.au, as a protected quality assurance activity, extending legal protections to its voluntary, anonymous incident and near‑miss reporting by emergency clinicians and patients.  \n\nThat protection (under the Health Insurance Act) means reports are de‑identified, kept confidential, used only in aggregate for research, training and standards, and generally cannot be used as court evidence—encouraging open reporting without creating the EMER system itself."},"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":3,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The instrument itself defines scope: EMER is declared a Part VC quality assurance activity insofar as it relates to health services provided in Australia (see s5 and Schedule). The text contains no indication it alters or departs from that original declaratory scope."},"complexity_factors":["Short, narrowly focused instrument that merely declares a named activity under s124X — limited statutory layering.","Relies on ACEM to operate the system and an appointed data custodian to de‑identify data, concentrating operational discretion in a non‑government body (Schedule: Description of activity).","Multiple downstream uses of aggregated data (research, conferences, publications, training updates) create moderate data‑sharing complexity and governance needs.","Participation is voluntary and anonymous, reducing regulatory compliance burden but increasing dependence on practitioner/consumer uptake for usefulness.","No detailed privacy or access-control rules in the instrument itself — implementation risk and administrative burden fall to ACEM and the custodian.","Scope explicitly limited to health services provided in Australia (s5 / Schedule), which narrows application but requires attention to cross‑jurisdictional data issues if any."],"plain_english_summary":"This declaration (under s124X of the Health Insurance Act 1973) designates the Emergency Medicine Events Register (EMER) as a Part VC quality‑assurance activity, bringing reports made on its secure website within statutory protections and placing administration with the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM). \n\nParticipation is voluntary, anonymous and de‑identified; contributors may include emergency practitioners, trainees, allied health professionals and consumers. ACEM and an appointed data custodian manage, aggregate and share de‑identified data for research, education, publications and curriculum updates, so ACEM bears operational costs and discretion over access and de‑identification processes."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/health-insurance-quality-assurance-activity-emergency-medicine-events-register-emer-declaration-2025","history":"/api/acts/health-insurance-quality-assurance-activity-emergency-medicine-events-register-emer-declaration-2025/history","analysis":"/api/acts/health-insurance-quality-assurance-activity-emergency-medicine-events-register-emer-declaration-2025/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/health-insurance-quality-assurance-activity-emergency-medicine-events-register-emer-declaration-2025/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/health-insurance-quality-assurance-activity-emergency-medicine-events-register-emer-declaration-2025/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/health-insurance-quality-assurance-activity-emergency-medicine-events-register-emer-declaration-2025/documents"}}