A medico-legal case must be recorded and the police informed. The recording usually happens; the evidence of intimation often does not. An MLC entry with no intimation record is both an accreditation finding and a legal exposure, because the obligation is statutory rather than contractual.
What has to be in the entry
The case details, the time it was identified as medico-legal, who identified it, and — the field that gets left blank — the time and mode of police intimation, with the name of the person who made it.
A register that captures the first four and not the fifth is the common pattern. It looks complete until someone asks the fifth question.
Why the gap happens
The clinical team identifies the case. The administrative act of informing the police belongs to someone else, often on a different shift. The handover between those two people is where the record is lost.
Nobody is negligent. There is simply no field that forces the second half of the process to close.
What to put a number on.
An MLC entry that cannot be closed without an intimation record. Not a reminder — a block. This is one of the few places in a hospital where a hard stop is proportionate, because the downside is legal rather than financial.
Then a standing report of MLC entries open more than a few hours. One line, checked daily.
The overlap with grievances
The grievance register has the same failure shape: a complaint recorded, and no acknowledgement date. An unacknowledged complaint is worse than an unresolved one, because it suggests the process was never started.
Both registers reward the same fix — a field that must be filled before the entry can close.
What to change this week
Add an intimation field to the MLC entry that must be completed before the entry can close — time, mode, and the name of the person who informed the police. Not a reminder. A block.
Pull every MLC entry from the last quarter and check how many carry that evidence. The proportion will tell you whether this is an occasional lapse or a structural gap in the handover.
Apply the same shape to grievances: an acknowledgement date that must be filled before the complaint can be marked open. An unacknowledged complaint reads worse than an unresolved one.
Then a single standing report — MLC entries open beyond a few hours, and grievances unacknowledged beyond a day. Two lines, checked each morning by whoever runs the front office.
Questions we get asked
What is missing from most MLC registers?
Evidence of police intimation — the time, the mode, and who made it. The case details are usually recorded; the intimation record often is not.
Why does the gap happen?
The clinical team identifies the case and an administrative colleague informs the police, often on a different shift. The handover between them is where the record is lost.
Should the entry be blocked without it?
Yes. This is one of the few places where a hard stop rather than a reminder is proportionate, because the exposure is statutory.
See it against your own claims
Twenty settled claims, showing what was disallowed, how much was predictable and how much the payer never explained. About an hour of your team’s time.