OSHA Amputation Reporting and Recordkeeping: What Safety Teams Should Do First

Report a work-related amputation to OSHA within 24 hours, including fingertip amputations with or without bone loss, then record the case on the 300 Log. Amputations include body parts that are later reattached.

• 8 hours: report a work-related fatality, counted from when you learn of it (deaths within 30 days of the incident).
• 24 hours: report an in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye (events within 24 hours of the incident).
• 7 calendar days: record the case on the 300 Log and complete the 301.
• Year end: the case is part of the reviewed log and the certified 300A.

Report to OSHA within 8 hours after a work-related fatality, and within 24 hours after a work-related in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye (29 CFR 1904.39). Report by phone or in person to the nearest Area Office, by calling 1-800-321-6742, or online at osha.gov/report; voicemail, fax, and email do not count. A fatality is reportable only if the death occurs within 30 days of the incident, and a hospitalization, amputation, or eye loss only if it occurs within 24 hours. The clock starts when you or your agent learn of the event and that it was work-related. Reporting does not replace recording: the case still goes on the 300 Log.

Amputation cases create parallel duties that should not be handled in separate silos. Report covered work-related amputations within 24 hours and evaluate the recordable case separately.

1. Confirm the event facts.
2. Report if required.
3. Create the log entry.
4. Control follow-up communications.

Report as soon as you realize the deadline passed, and give OSHA the actual times: when the incident happened, when you learned of it, and when you reported. Late reporting can be cited, with a maximum of $16,550 per serious or other-than-serious violation in 2026. Then make sure the case is on the 300 Log as well.

Teams sometimes treat the OSHA report as a substitute for the OSHA 300 entry.

Reporting decisions are made under pressure with partial facts, and a call that waits on an investigation is usually a late call. The fix is a written escalation path: who decides, who calls, which number, and what to have in hand, so the report never waits for the investigation.

As the safety manager you usually own the decision itself, so the most useful habit is writing down the fact each call rests on at the time you make it.

• The medical definition and the internal injury description need careful handling.
• A heart attack at work that leads to death or hospitalization must be reported; the Area Office decides whether to investigate.

A press operator loses the tip of an index finger, and surgeons reattach it. It is still an amputation: the site reports within 24 hours and records the case. A deep avulsion of skin from the same finger, with no loss of the fingertip, would not be a reportable amputation, though it is recordable.

300log records on each case's 301 whether the employee was treated in an emergency room or hospitalized overnight as an in-patient, and any date of death, so the log entry sits next to the facts behind a report. The report itself goes to OSHA by phone or at osha.gov/report.

For a quick answer without an account, use the free recordability checker.

• Loss of an Eye Reporting to OSHA: The 24-Hour Rule Explained
• Construction Work Zone Vehicle Accidents and OSHA Reporting
• Commercial Transportation Incidents and OSHA Reporting Exceptions
• Near Miss vs OSHA Recordable: How to Separate Learning Events From Log Cases