OSHA INJURY AND
ILLNESS RECORDKEEPING
Dave Stolp
National Safety Council, Nebraska
Let’s talk OSHA recordkeeping .
..
WARNING: DO NOT MIX
OSHA RECORDABILITY AND
WORKERS’ COMPENSATION
• Workers’ Compensation determinations do
NOT impact OSHA recordability.
Some cases may be OSHA recordable and
compensable.
Some cases may be compensable, but not
OSHA recordable.
Some cases may be OSHA recordable, but
not compensable.
1904.4 – Recording Criteria
Covered employers must record each fatality,
injury or illness that:
– Is work-related, and
– Is a new case, and
– Meets one or more of the criteria contained in
sections 1904.7 through 1904.11
OSHA INJURY AND
ILLNESS RECORDKEEPING
5 STEP PROCESS
Did the employee
experience an
injury or illness?
YES
Is the injury or
illness work-related?
YES
Is the injury or
illness a new case?
YES
Does the injury or illness meet
the general criteria or the
application to specific cases?
YES
Record the
Injury or illness.
Step 1:
Did the employee
experience an
injury or illness?
Definition
An injury OR illness is an abnormal condition or disorder. Injuries
include cases such as, but not limited to, a cut, fracture, sprain, or
amputation. Illnesses include both acute and chronic illnesses, such
as, but not limited to, a skin disease, respiratory disorder, or
poisoning.
Step 2:
Is the injury or
illness work-related?
Determination of work-relatedness
You must consider an injury or illness to be work-related if an identifiable event
or exposure (i.e., discernable cause) in the work environment either caused or
contributed to the resulting condition or significantly aggravated a pre-existing
injury or illness. Work-relatedness is presumed for injuries and illnesses
resulting from events or exposures in the work environment unless an
exception specifically applies.
1904.5 – Work Environment
• The work environment is defined as the
establishment and other locations where one or more
employees are working or present as a condition of
employment
• The work environment includes not only physical
locations, but also the equipment or materials used
by employees during the course of their work
The following situations are not work-related:
There is no discernable cause. Injury/illness did not result from event/exposure
at work
1.
2.
At the time of the injury or illness, the employee was present in the work
environment as a member of the general public rather than as an employee.
3.
The injury or illness involves signs or symptoms that surface at work but result
solely from a non-work related event or exposure that occurs outside the work
environment.
4.
The injury or illness results solely from voluntary participation in a wellness
program or in a medical, fitness, or recreational activity such as blood donation,
physical examination, flu shot, exercise class, racquetball, or baseball.
5.
The injury or illness is solely the result of an employee eating, drinking, or
preparing food or drink for personal consumption (whether bought on the
employer’s premises or brought in). For example, if the employee is injured by
choking on a sandwich while in the employer’s establishment, the case would not be
considered work-related.
Note: If the employee is made ill by ingesting food contaminated by
workplace contaminants (such as lead), or gets food poisoning
from food supplied by the employer, the case would be
considered work-related.
The following situations also are not work-related:
6.
The injury or illness is solely the result of an employee doing personal tasks
(unrelated to their employment) at the establishment outside of the employee’s
assigned working hours.
7.
The injury or illness is solely the result of personal grooming, self medication for
a non-work-related condition, or is intentionally self-inflicted.
8.
The injury or illness is caused by a motor vehicle accident and occurs on a
company parking lot or company access road while the employee is commuting to
or from work.
9.
The illness is the common cold or flu (Note: contagious diseases such as
tuberculosis, brucellosis, hepatitis A, or plague are considered work-related if
the employee is infected at work).
10. The illness is a mental illness. Mental illness will not be considered work-related
unless the employee voluntarily provides the employer with an opinion from a
physician or other licensed health care professional with appropriate training and
experience (psychiatrist, psychologist, psychiatric nurse practitioner, etc.)
stating that the employee has a mental illness that is work-related.
1904.5 – Work Relationship
Pre-Existing Conditions
A “Pre-existing” condition - an injury or illness that
resulted solely from a non work- related event or
exposure that occurred outside of the work environment
A pre-existing injury or illness is significantly aggravated
when the following cases would not have occurred but for an
event or exposure in the work environment:
 Death
 Loss of Consciousness
 Days Away, Days Restricted or Job Transfer
 Medical Treatment
Step 3:
Is the injury or
illness a new case?
Determination of a new case
Consider an injury or illness a “new case” if the employee has
not previously experienced a recorded injury or illness of the
same type that affects the same part of the body,
OR the
employee previously experienced a recorded injury or illness of
the same type that affected the same part of body but had
recovered completely (all signs and symptoms had disappeared)
from the previous injury or illness and an event or exposure in
the work environment caused the signs or symptoms to reappear.
Step 4:
Does the injury or illness
meet the general criteria
or the application
to specific cases?
General Recording Criteria
You must consider an injury or illness to meet the general recording
criteria, and therefore to be recordable, if it results in any of
the following: death, days away from work, restricted work or
transfer to another job, medical treatment beyond first aid, or loss
of consciousness. You must also consider a case to meet the general
recording criteria if it involves a significant injury or illness diagnosed
by a physician or other licensed health care professional, even if it
does not result in death, days away from work, restricted work or
job transfer, medical treatment beyond first aid, or loss of
consciousness.
DAY COUNTS
Count the number of calendar days the employee was
away from work or restricted/transferred (include
weekend days, holidays, vacation days, etc.)
May cap day count at 180 days away from work and/or
days of restricted/job transfer
May stop day count if employee leaves company for a
reason unrelated to the injury or illness. Must estimate
day count when employee leaves company due to reasons
related to the injury and illness
Restricted Work Activity
•
Restriction/transfer limited to day of injury/illness onset not
recordable-includes employee being sent home during shift.
•
Production of fewer goods or services not considered RWA
•
Vague restrictions from physician or PLHCP (e.g., “light
duty” or “take it easy for a week”) are to be recorded as
RWA if no further information is obtain.
•
A case is not recordable if the employee experiences minor
musculoskeletal discomfort, a health care professional
determines that the employee is fully able to perform all of
his or her routine job functions, and the employer assigns a
work restriction to that employee for the purpose of
preventing a more serious condition from developing. Once
a case becomes recordable under section 1904.7 general
recording criteria, the discomfort is no longer minor.
1904.7 – Job Transfer
• Injured or ill employee assigned to job other than
regular job for part of the day
• Do not include day of injury/illness onset
•
record job transfer day (s) in RWA column
• Stop count when transfer permanent-- BUT MUST
COUNT AT LEAST ONE DAY
Medical Treatment VS First Aid
Medical treatment DOES NOT include:
1.
Visits to a physician or other licensed health care professional
solely for observation or counseling only
2.
Diagnostic procedures such as x-rays and blood tests, including
administration of prescription medications used solely for
diagnostic purposes (e.g., eye drops to dilate pupils)
3.
First Aid
Medical Treatment VS First Aid – cont’d.
First Aid list in regulation is comprehensive. Any other procedure is medical treatment.
-
Using temporary immobilization devices while transporting an accident
victim is First Aid
-
Drilling a nail is First Aid
-
Using eye patches is First Aid
-
Removing foreign bodies from the eye using only irrigation or a cotton
swab is First Aid
-
Removing splinters or foreign material from areas other than the eye by
irrigation, tweezers, cotton swabs or other simple means is First Aid
-
Using finger guards is First Aid
-
Using massages is First Aid
-
Drinking fluids for relief of heat stress is First Aid
Medical Treatment VS First Aid – cont’d.
-
Using any non-rigid means of support, as elastic bandages, wraps, back belts,
etc. is First Aid
-
1 dose prescription med is Medical Treatment
-
Over the Counter non-prescription med at non-prescription strength is First Aid
OTC med at prescription strength is Medical Treatment
Ibuprofen (such as Advil™)
Greater than 467 mg
Diphenhydramine (such as Benadryl™) – Greater than 50 mg
Naproxen Sodium (such as Aleve™)
–
Greater than 220 mg
Ketoprofen (such as Orudus KT™)
–
Greater than 25 mg
-
Administering tetanus immunizations is First Aid
-
Cleaning, flushing or soaking wounds on the surface of the skin is First Aid
-
Using wound coverings such as Band-Aids; Butterfly bandage/Steri-Strip (the
only kind of wound closures) are First Aid
-
Any number of hot-cold treatments is First Aid
Significant diagnosed Injury or Illness that is
automatically recordable if work related:
1. Fracture
2. Punctured ear drum
3. Cancer
4. Chronic irreversible disease
(e.g., silicosis)
Did the employee
experience an
injury or illness?
YES
Is the injury or
illness work-related?
YES
Is the injury or
illness a new case?
YES
Does the injury or illness meet
the general criteria or the
application to specific cases?
YES
Record the
Injury or illness.
1904.8 – Bloodborne Pathogens
• Record all work-related needlesticks and cuts
from sharp objects that are contaminated with
another person’s blood or other potentially
infectious material (includes human bodily
fluids, tissues and organs; other materials
infected with HIV or HBV such as laboratory
cultures)
• Record splashes or other exposures to blood or
other potentially infectious material if it results
in diagnosis of a bloodborne disease or meets
the general recording criteria
Relationship to Bloodborne Pathogen Standard
• Employers may elect to use the OSHA 300 and 301 forms to
meet the sharps injury log requirements, provided two
conditions are met:
1
The employer must enter the type and brand of the
device on either the 300 or 301 form.
2
The employer must maintain the records in a way
that segregates sharps injuries from other types of
work-related injuries and illnesses, or allows sharps
injuries to be easily separated.
1904.9 – Medical Removal
• If an employee is medically removed
under the medical surveillance
requirements of an OSHA standard, you
must record the case
• The case is recorded as either one
involving days away from work or days
of restricted work activity
• If the case involves voluntary removal
below the removal levels required by
the standard, the case need not be
recorded
Conditions For Hearing Loss Recordability
1904.10
OSHA’s recordkeeping rule requires the employer to record all workrelated hearing loss cases that meet BOTH of the following conditions
on the same audiometric test for either ear:
1. The employee has experienced a Standard Threshold Shift
(STS) – 10dB or greater from the most current baseline.
2. The employee’s total hearing level is 25 dB or more above
audiometric zero (averaged at 2000, 3000, & 4000 Hz) in the
same ear(s) as the STS.
Use this ‘decision tree’ to determine whether the results of a audiometric exam
given on or after January 1, 2003 reveal a recordable STS.
No
Has the employee suffered a STS (an
average 10dB or more loss relative to the most current baseline
audiogram averaged at 2000, 3000 and 4000 Hz) in one or both ears
according to the provisions of the OSHA noise standard (§1910.95)? *
Yes
No
Is the employee’s overall hearing level at 25dB or
more above audiometric zero averaged at 2000, 3000
and 4000 Hz in the affected ear(s)?
Yes
No
Is the hearing loss work-related?
Yes
Do not record
Record on the OSHA 300 Log,and check the column
“All other Illnesses” **
Note: In all cases, use the most current baseline to determine recordability as you would to calculate
a STS under the hearing conservation provisions of the noise standard (§1910.95). If an STS occurs
in only one ear, you may only revise the baseline audiogram for that ear.
* The audiogram may be adjusted for presbycusis (aging) as set out in 1910.95.
*. A separate hearing loss column on the OSHA 300 Log beginning in Calendar year 2004.
1904.11 - Tuberculosis
• Record a case where an employee is exposed at
work to someone with a known case of active
tuberculosis, and subsequently develops a TB
infection
• A case is not recordable when:
– The worker is living in a household with a
person who is diagnosed with active TB
– The Public Health Department has identified
the worker as a contact of an individual with
active TB
– A medical investigation shows the
employee’s infection was caused by
exposure away from work
Musculoskeletal Disorders
Record all work-related MSD cases that meet any of the general
recording criteria.
Depending upon the nature of the event or exposure that causes the
case you should record these cases as an injury or an “all other
illness”
1904.29 - Forms
• OSHA Form 300, Log of Work-Related Injuries
and Illnesses
• OSHA Form 300A, Summary of Work-Related
Injuries and Illnesses
• OSHA Form 301, Injury and Illness Incident
Report
1904.29 - Forms
• Employers must enter each recordable case
on the forms within 7 calendar days of
receiving information that a recordable case
occurred
• An equivalent form has the same
information, is as readable and
understandable, and uses the same
instructions as the OSHA form it replaces
• Forms can be kept on a computer as long as
they can be produced when they are needed
(i.e., meet the access provisions of 1904.35
and 1904.40)
1904.29 – Privacy Protection
• Do not enter the name of an
employee on the OSHA Form
300 for “privacy concern
cases”
• Enter “privacy case” in the
name column
• Keep a separate confidential
list of the case numbers and
employee names
1904.29 – Privacy Protection
• Privacy concern cases are:
– An injury or illness to an intimate body part or
reproductive system
– An injury or illness resulting from sexual assault
– Mental illness
– HIV infection, hepatitis, tuberculosis
– Needlestick and sharps injuries that are
contaminated with another person’s blood or
other potentially infectious material
– Employee voluntarily requests to keep name off
for other illness cases
1904.29 – Privacy Protection
• Employer may use discretion in describing the
case if employee can be identified
• If you give the forms to people not authorized
by the rule, you must remove the names first
– Exceptions for:
• Auditor/consultant,
• Workers’ compensation or other insurance
• Public health authority or law enforcement
agency
1904.32 – Annual Summary
• Federal establishments certification
– The senior establishment management
official
– The head of the Agency for which the
senior establishment management
official works, or
– Any management official who is in
the direct chain of command between
the senior establishment management
official and the head of the agency
head
• Must post for 3-month period from
February 1 to April 30 of the year
following the year covered by the
summary
1904.32 – Annual Summary
• Review OSHA Form 300 for
completeness and accuracy,
correct deficiencies
• Complete OSHA Form 300A
• Certify summary
• Post summary
1904.33 – Retention
and Updating
• Retain forms for 5 years following the year
that they cover
• Update the OSHA Form 300 during that
period
• Need not update the OSHA Form 300A or
OSHA Form 301
1904.35 – Employee Involvement
• Must provide limited access to injury and illness
records to employees, former employees and
their personal and authorized representatives
– Provide copy of OSHA Form 300 by end of next
business day
– Provide copy of OSHA Form 301 to employee,
former employee or personal representative by end
of next business day
– Provide copies of OSHA Form 301 to authorized
representative within 7 calendar days. Provide only
“Information about the case” section of form
1904.39 – Fatality/Catastrophe Reporting
• Report orally within 8 hours any workrelated fatality or incident involving 3 or
more in-patient hospitalizations
• Do not need to report highway or public
street motor vehicle accidents (outside of a
construction work zone)
• Do not need to report commercial airplane,
train, subway or bus accidents
For More Help
• OSHA’s Recordkeeping Pagewww.osha.gov/recordkeeping/index.html
• OSHA Regional Recordkeeping
Coordinators
QUESTIONS
[email protected]