1. Injury/Illness Recording & Reporting
OSHA 300 Recordkeeping Requirements
August, 2011

2. Topics Covered
This presentation is an outline of the requirements of injury/illness recordkeeping and will cover the following topics:
What is injury/illness recordkeeping?
Who has to keep these records?
What is considered a workplace injury?
What information must be recorded?
What are the forms you need to fill out?
Note: DOSH injury/illness recordkeeping requirements are similar but not identical to federal OSHA injury/illness recordkeeping requirements.

3. What is injury and illness recordkeeping?
Most businesses are required by both federal OSHA and DOSH to keep records of employee on-the-job injuries or illnesses on the form shown above (plus two other forms discussed later.)

4. Why is workplace injury & illness recording important?
It is required by DOSH regulations (WAC ), but it can also do the following for employers:
- capture information on how workers are hurt,
- help identify safety and health hazards,
- help prevent future injuries or illnesses,
- increase employee safety awareness,
- reduce worker compensation claims costs.

5. Keeping records of workplace injuries and illnesses does NOT mean:
that the employer or employee was at fault,
that a DOSH safety & health rule has been violated,
that the injured employee is eligible for workers' compensation or other benefits.
However, if a DOSH safety & health inspector visits your workplace, they will ask if you have the records and usually review them to determine where safety hazards may still exist.

6. Who must keep workplace injury/illness records?
Many, but not all employers must keep records. However, certain types of businesses are exempted.*
If not exempted, you must keep the records if you have 11 or more employees any time during the year, including temporary employees.
Applies to any employee on payroll who is injured at work.
* Mainly retail, restaurants, service, finance, insurance and real estate employers – see Table 1 in the Rule. Also exempt are public libraries and public schools.

7. What injuries/illnesses must be recorded?
Any “work-related” injury or illness:
As defined in the Rule: “… an event or exposure in the work environment either caused or contributed to the resulting condition or significantly aggravated a pre-existing injury or illness.”
Examples include cuts, fractures, back injury from lifting, acid splash into eyes, inhaling paint vapors that make existing asthma worse. Also includes fatalities.

8. Reporting Fatalities and Hospitalizations
In addition to keeping records of fatalities and serious injuries requiring a stay at a hospital, all employers must notify L & I of these incidents within 8 hours.
Call or the nearest L & I office and provide the following:
- time & date
- location
- company name
- number of employees who died or were hospitalized
- names of those employees
- company contact person and phone number
- brief description of the incident
Note: Most fatalities and many hospitalizations will be investigated by DOSH safety & health inspectors.

9. What is the “work environment”?
Definition: When employees are at a fixed workplace establishment, they are in the work environment. When employees are working away from the establishment, they carry a “bubble” of work environment wherever they go.
Establishment and locations where one or more employees are working or present as a condition of their employment.
Includes all physical locations and equipment or materials used by the employee during the course of his or her work.

10. Work-Related Travel Status
An injury or illness while on travel status is work-related if the employee was engaged in work activities for the employer.
Travel to and from customer contact
Conducting job tasks during travel
Business related entertainment directed by employer
Off-time in a motel is not work-related in the “home away from home” concept
Detours for personal reasons are not work-related

11. Work at Home Work-related injuries or illnesses at home:
Must be performing work for pay or compensation and directly related to the performance of work rather than general home environment.
Example: If an employee drops a box of work documents and injures her foot, or if an employee's fingernail was punctured and became infected by a needle from a sewing machine used to perform garment work at home, the injuries would be considered work-related.
In contrast, if an employee receives a shock and is injured due
to faulty wiring in the home, the injury is not work related.

12. Work Environment Exceptions
Present as member of general public.
Example: If a grocery store employee is shopping after work, falls and is injured, the employee is present as a member of the general public and the injury is not work related.
Symptoms arising in work environment due to non-work-related event or exposure.
Example: If an employee has a pollen-caused asthma attack and must take medication, the disease is not work-related.
Voluntary participation in wellness program, medical, fitness or recreational activity.
Example: If an employee passes out giving blood or is injured playing basketball for a company team – the case is due to voluntary participation in a wellness or fitness program and is not work related.
Cases meeting the conditions of any of these listed exceptions are not considered work related and do not need to be recorded.

13. Work Environment Exceptions
Eating, drinking or preparing food or drink for personal consumption.
Example: If an employee burns his lip on a cup of coffee or chokes on a sandwich during lunch, the injury is not work related.
Personal tasks at the worksite but outside assigned working hours.
Example: If an employee works on his own car in the employer’s shop or uses the employer’s sewing machine after the shift has ended, this is a personal task and is not work related.
Personal grooming, self medication for non-work-related condition, or intentionally self-inflicted injury
Example: If an employee has a negative reaction to asthma medication for personal allergies, cuts himself shaving, or commits suicide – these cases are not work related.

14. Work Environment Exceptions
Motor vehicle accident during commute.
Example: If an employee is injured in a motor vehicle accident going to or leaving work at the beginning or end of shift, or for a personal errand – the case is not work related. However, if the employee slips on the ice in the company owned parking lot - the case is work related.
Common cold or flu.
Example: If an employee catches a cold or the flu, the case is not work related.
Mental illness – unless substantiated by LHCP that it is work related.
Example: Mental illness is work related only if the employee voluntarily provides the employer with a written opinion from a LHCP having appropriate qualifications and experience that affirms a work-related mental illness. The employer may get a second opinion and accept the opinion of the most qualified LHCP.
LHCP – licensed health care professional – doctor, nurse, psychiatrist, etc.

15. What must be recorded?
Record a work-related injury or illness if it results in:
Death
Medical treatment beyond first aid
Loss of consciousness
Significant injury or illness diagnosed by a licensed healthcare professional.
Days away from work (off work)
Restricted work or job transfer

16. What is considered medical treatment?
Management and care of a patient to combat disease or disorder. (does not have to be treatment by a doctor)
Does not include:
Visits to health care provider solely for observation or counseling,
Diagnostic procedures such as x-ray, blood tests or MRIs,
First aid

17. First Aid Actions Not Considered Medical Treatment
Using a nonprescription medication at nonprescription strength;
Administering tetanus immunizations (other immunizations, such as Hepatitis B vaccine or rabies vaccine, are considered medical treatment);
Cleaning, flushing or soaking wounds on the surface of the skin;
Using wound coverings such as bandages, Band-Aids™, gauze pads, etc (other wound closing devices such as sutures, staples, etc. are considered medical treatment);
Using hot or cold therapy;
Using any non-rigid means of support, such as elastic bandages, wraps, non-rigid back belts, etc. (rigid devices or other systems designed to immobilize parts of the body are considered medical treatment for recordkeeping purposes);

18. First Aid Not Considered Medical Treatment (continued)
Using temporary immobilization devices while transporting an accident victim (e.g., splints, slings, neck collars, back boards, etc.).
Drilling of a fingernail or toenail to relieve pressure, or draining fluid from a blister;
Using eye patches;
Removing foreign bodies from the eye using only irrigation or a cotton swab;
Removing splinters or foreign material from areas other than the eye by irrigation, tweezers, cotton swabs or other simple means;
Using finger guards;
Using massages (physical therapy or chiropractic treatment are considered medical treatment for recordkeeping purposes); or
Drinking fluids for relief of heat stress.
Note: even if first aid as described is provided by a doctor or other health care provider, it is not considered medical treatment and does not have to be recorded.

19. Loss of Consciousness
All work-related cases involving loss of consciousness must be recorded regardless of the length of time the worker is unconscious.

20. Significant diagnosed injuries and illnesses include:
Cancer
Chronic irreversible disease
Fractured or cracked bone
Punctured eardrum

21. Audiogram showing hearing loss
Record as any other injury if hearing loss is in one or both ears and is related to noise exposure on the job
Do not have to record the loss if health care provider determines the loss is not work-related.
Hearing loss threshold shifts of 10 decibels or more and 25 decibel overall hearing loss as detected in hearing tests must be recorded.
Audiogram showing hearing loss

22. Musculoskeletal Disorders
Record work-related injuries and illnesses involving muscles, nerves, tendons, ligaments, joints, cartilage and spinal discs in the same manner that you would any injury or illness.
Examples include such conditions as: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Rotator Cuff Syndrome, Trigger Finger, Epicondylitis, and Low Back Pain.

23. Other Specific Recording Criteria
Needlestick and sharps injuries
Medical removal under a DOSH safety standard
Tuberculosis
Specific requirements apply to these situations – see WAC for needlesticks, WAC for medical removal and WAC for tuberculosis

24. Significantly Aggravated Pre-Existing Injury or Illness
If an employee has a pre-existing condition and an event or exposure in the work environment aggravates that condition and results in:
death
loss of consciousness
medical treatment
days away from work, restricted work days or job transfer,
than the injury or illness must be reported.
Example: a worker with a minor back injury severely injures his back further while lifting a heavy object or a worker with a heart condition has a heart attack while doing heavy labor and dies.

25. New Injury/Illness Cases
A case is considered new if:
The employee has no previous recorded injury/illness of same type affecting the same part of the body or,
the employee has fully recovered from previous injury/illness but work-related events or exposure caused the signs and symptoms to reappear.

26. New Cases
Most illnesses and some injuries can be complicated and may need medical documentation.
If there is a medical opinion regarding resolution of a case, the employer must follow that opinion.
If an exposure triggers the recurrence, it is a new case (e.g., asthma, rashes).
If signs and symptoms recur even in the absence of exposure, it is not a new case (e.g., silicosis, tuberculosis, asbestosis).
Note: If two or more Physicians or Licensed Health Care Professionals make conflicting recommendations the employer is required to base their decision on the best documented and reasoned evidence.

27. Days away from work cases
Criteria for entering number of days away from work:
Do not include day of injury or illness.
Employer must follow health care professional medical opinion.
The number of days includes weekends, holidays, vacation that the employee could not work because of the injury/illness.
Cap the count at 180 days.
Stop count if employee leaves company for reason unrelated to injury/illness.

28. Injuries requiring medical treatment, but no days away from work
Some minor injuries may require a visit to a medical clinic on the day of the injury, but no time off work after that.
It is still considered a recordable injury, if actual medical treatment occurred.
An example is a head cut requiring stitches, but the worker returns to work the next day with no work restrictions.
Remember, x-rays, first aid or blood tests alone do not count as medical treatment.

29. Restricted Work/Job Transfer
Restricted work activity keeps employee from::
Performing one or more routine functions* of his or her job (work activities the employee regularly performs at least once per week) or
Working a normally scheduled workday.**
*Routine functions are work activities the employee regularly performs at least once per week.
**The day of injury/illness is not counted as a day of restriction

30. Restricted Work/Job Transfer
Not considered restricted work if:
Restriction limited to day of injury/illness
Fewer goods or services produced
Recommended restrictions from LHCP must be considered
Job Transfer
Assigned to job other than normal job for part of day
Performs normal job for part of day and assigned to another for rest of day
Most job transfers involve some type of restriction. Even if they don’t, job transfers due to an injury or illness are recordable events. If an injured or ill employee is transferred to another job for half days, this is also a job transfer.

31. Restricted Work/Job Transfer
Counting days of restrictions/transfer
Count same as days away from work.
Stop count if permanent changes to job are made.
If permanent changes are made the day of the injury/illness, the employer must count at least one day

32. Privacy Cases
In some cases, names of injured employee need to be kept private & not recorded on forms.
Privacy concern cases are limited to:
Injury/illness to intimate body part or reproductive system
Injury/illness resulting from sexual assault
Mental illness
HIV infection, hepatitis or tuberculosis
Needle stick/sharps injuries
Illness cases where employee requests to keep name off
Employers may use discretion in describing a privacy cases to protect employee identity.
See WAC for details

33. Injury/illness recordkeeping forms
Three Forms – OSHA 301, OSHA 300 and OSHA 300-A
These 3 forms must be used and kept or their equivalent that records the same information. Next slides provide details. Click here to get full views.

34. OSHA 301 Injury and Illness Incident Report
Must be filled out within 7 days of incident,
Must include details about an incident,
Must be retained for 5 years, and can be kept electronically,
Can use another form as long as it contains same information.

35. OSHA 300 Log
Record details within 7 days – take information from OSHA 301 form:
What happened
Where it happened
When it happened
How it happened, and
Who it happened to
The OSHA 300 Log must be retained for 5 years and updated if there are any changes in information.

36. OSHA 300A Summary form
This form is a summary of all recorded incidents for a calendar year.
It must be certified as accurate by company executive.
It must be posted for all employees to view from Feb. 1- April 30 of following year and kept on file for 5 years.

37. Equivalent Forms Can keep records on equivalent form if:
Has the same information,
Is as readable and understandable
Completed using the same instructions as the OSHA form it replaces
May use computer if:
Records can be produced when needed
You can provide required access

38. Multiple Business Establishments
Keep separate OSHA 300 for each establishment expected to be in business for a year or longer.
Log may be kept at central location if you can:
Transmit to specific worksite within four hours of request
Meet disclosure timeframe requirements
send information about a injury to the central location within 7 days of the incident
May keep one log for several short-term establishments or worksites in business for less than one year.

39. Employee Involvement Employer must:
Inform employee how to report injuries/illnesses
Provide limited access to injury/illness records to present/past employees and their representatives:
Authorized collective bargaining agent (employee rep)
Person designated by employee (personal representative)
Legal representative of injured/deceased employee (personal representative)

40. Employee Access to Records
Employers are required to provide records to employees upon request.
Provide copy of OSHA Form 300 by end of next business day to any employee who requests it.
May not remove names from OSHA 300 (except privacy cases).
Provide copy of OSHA Form 301 to injured employee, former employee or personal representative by end of next business day upon request.

41. Annual OSHA Survey
If you receive an Annual Survey Form from federal OSHA you must:
Respond within 30 calendar days or date stated in survey, whichever is later
Respond even if normally exempt
Even though DOSH operates in Washington state, you must still respond.

42. Providing Records to DOSH Inspectors
DOSH safety & health inspectors will likely review injury & illness records during inspections.
Employer must provide copies within four (4) business hours.
“Business hours” are determined by business hours of establishment where records are located.

43. For more information or assistance
To speak to a DOSH staff person knowledgeable about recordkeeping, call
Do I have to maintain an OSHA 300 Log? - a short summary of this module
How to fill out OSHA 300, 300A & 301 forms
Federal OSHA Injury Recordkeeping Rules – if you have business locations in other states, federal rules may apply
Recordkeeping Workshops offered by DOSH staff