Is it OSHA recordable?

Four questions behind every recordability decision

OSHA’s rule is a short decision chain (29 CFR 1904.4). A case goes on the 300 log only when all four answers are yes:

1. Is it your employee? Payroll employees of every kind, plus temporary and leased workers you supervise day to day (29 CFR 1904.31).
2. Is it work-related? An event or exposure in the work environment caused or contributed to it, or significantly aggravated a pre-existing condition, and none of the nine exceptions applies (29 CFR 1904.5).
3. Is it a new case? Not a continuation of an earlier recorded injury or illness of the same type to the same part of the body (29 CFR 1904.6).
4. Does it meet the recording criteria? Death, days away, restricted work or job transfer, medical treatment beyond first aid, loss of consciousness, or a significant diagnosed injury or illness (29 CFR 1904.7), or one of the special cases in 1904.8–1904.11.

First aid or medical treatment?

Most calls turn on this question. First aid is a closed list of 14 treatments in 29 CFR 1904.7(b)(5)(ii): non-prescription medicine at non-prescription strength, tetanus shots, cleaning surface wounds, bandages and Steri-Strips, hot or cold therapy, non-rigid supports, temporary immobilization for transport, drilling a nail or draining a blister, eye patches, flushing a foreign body from the eye, removing splinters by simple means, finger guards, massage, and fluids for heat stress. Anything else is medical treatment. Diagnostic tests and observation visits are neither.

Two details catch people out. Sutures, staples and surgical glue are medical treatment, while butterfly bandages and Steri-Strips are first aid. And a physician’s recommendation to take an over-the-counter drug at prescription strength counts as medical treatment.

A worked example

A warehouse associate cuts a hand on a box cutter. The clinic cleans the wound, closes it with Steri-Strips, and the associate goes back to the same job. Every treatment is on the first-aid list, so the case is not recordable. Had the clinic used three sutures instead, that’s medical treatment: the case is recordable and goes in column J, other recordable cases. If the doctor also restricted lifting for a week, it moves to column I, job transfer or restriction. Each case gets one column: its most serious outcome.

Reporting runs on a separate clock

Recording and reporting are different duties. Whatever the log says, report a work-related fatality within 8 hours, and an in-patient hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye within 24 hours (29 CFR 1904.39). This applies to employers who are exempt from keeping logs, too. Call 1-800-321-6742, contact your nearest Area Office, or report online.

Common mistakes

• Counting the day of injury as a day away. Start counting the day after (29 CFR 1904.7(b)(3)(i)).
• Judging by who treated it. The type of treatment decides the case, not whether a nurse, a physician or a coworker gave it.
• Waiting for a final diagnosis. Record within 7 calendar days of learning about a recordable case, then update the entry if the facts change.
• Naming a privacy case. For needlesticks, mental illness and the other privacy concern cases, write “privacy case” instead of the employee’s name (29 CFR 1904.29(b)(7)).