OSHA Recordable Injuries- To Record or Not to Record – Here Are Some Answers!

OSHA Recordable Injuries- To Record or Not to Record – Here Are Some Answers!

Safety Records: Recording Work-Related Illness and Injury

Each employer is required by OSHA to keep records of fatalities, injuries, and illnesses. Specifically, they must record each fatality, injury and illness that is work-related, is a new case, and meets one or more of the general recording criteria noted in Section 1904.7 (or the application to specific cases of Secs. 1904.8-11). Additional criteria apply to needle stick and sharps injury cases, tuberculosis cases, hearing loss cases, medical removal cases, and musculoskeletal disorder cases.

However, an employee report alone does not trigger recording; Abrams noted that “an employer can require evaluation by a physician or some other licensed health care professional. In addition, if a professional diagnoses a significant injury or illness and the employer then determines that the case is work-related, the case must be recorded.”

Safety Records: Exceptions to Employer Recording Requirements

There are some instances in which an employee illness or injury does not need to be recorded as a work-related incident:

• Employee was present in the workplace as member of the public
• Employee was engaged in a voluntary fitness program at work
• The common cold, flu etc., are not considered to be work-related contagious diseases
• Mental illness â€“ without the opinion of trained healthcare professional – is not automatically deemed work-related
• Illnesses resulting from the employee’s food brought in from an outside source
• Illness or injury resulting from personal tasks completed during working hours
• Illness or injury resulting from self-grooming, self-medication or self-inflicted injuries (i.e., suicide attempts)

Safety Records: How do You Determine Work-Relatedness?

As you can see from the exceptions above, determining work-relatedness is the key to ensuring you’re recording everything you need to in your safety records. There must be a causal connection between the employment and the illness or injury before the case is recordable. OSHA has concluded that the determination of work-relatedness is best made by the employer, not by the healthcare professional or agency. Be careful though–Abrams explained that even though “OSHA has pretty much delegated the decision-making as to the work-relatedness of something to the employer . . . if you guess wrong, can they cite you? You bet and fined.”

So, remember that the illness or injury is deemed work-related if an event or exposure in the work environment either caused or contributed to the resulting condition or significantly aggravated a pre-existing illness or injury. Work-relatedness is presumed for injuries or illnesses resulting from events or exposures occurring in the work environment, unless an exception specifically applies.

Additionally, it’s important to note that the work event or exposure need only be one of the discernible causes; it need not be the sole or predominant cause.

However, 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:

1) death

2) days away from work

3) restricted work or transfer to another job

4) medical treatment beyond first aid

5) 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 (e.g., cancer, chronic irreversible disease, a fractured or cracked bone, or a punctured eardrum).

OSHA has received numerous questions about how the provisions of the new rule will affect the recording and reporting of injuries and illnesses in various situations. The purpose of this document is to provide answers to some of the more commonly asked questions related to the revised rule.

Most of the questions that OSHA has received about the new rule are answered in the text of the regulation itself. Because the rule addresses, in clear and simple language, the most common recording and reporting questions that arise, it is important that persons with recordkeeping responsibilities read the regulation and supporting materials carefully. To facilitate this, this document provides electronic links to each section of the regulation. For sections of the rule not discussed in this document, please refer to the regulatory text.

The questions and answers in this document do not themselves impose enforceable recordkeeping or reporting obligations; such obligations are imposed only by the regulation and federal and state statute.