Weekly Safety Meeting – OSHA’s Record-Keeping Update

OSHA’s updated recordkeeping rule expands the list of severe injuries that all employers must report to OSHA. Establishments located in states under Federal OSHA jurisdiction must begin to comply with the new requirements on January 1, 2015. Establishments located in states that operate their own safety and health programs should check with their state plan for the implementation date of the new requirements.

Workplace injuries and fatalities are completely preventable, and these new requirements will help OSHA focus its resources and hold employers accountable for preventing them. The updated rule will also improve access on the part of employers, employees, researchers, and the public to information about workplace safety and health and increase their ability to identify and abate serious hazards.

Starting in 2015, employers will have to report the following to OSHA:

• All work-related fatalities;

• All work-related inpatient hospitalizations of one or more employees;

• All work-related amputations; and

• All work-related losses of an eye.

Employers must report work-related fatalities within 8 hours of finding out about them. Employers only have to report fatalities that occurred within 30 days of a work-related incident. The reporting deadlines are based on when the employer learns of the injury.

For any inpatient hospitalization, amputation, or eye loss, employers must report the incident within 24 hours of learning about it. Employers only have to report an inpatient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye that occurs within 24 hours of a work-related incident.

Employers do not have to report an inpatient hospitalization if it was for diagnostic testing or observation only. An inpatient hospitalization is defined as a formal admission to the inpatient service of a hospital or clinic for care or treatment.

Employers have the following options for reporting the event:

• By telephone to the nearest OSHA Area Office during normal business hours; or

• By telephone to the 24-hour OSHA hotline at 1-800-321-OSHA (6742).

  OSHA is developing a new means of reporting events electronically that will be available soon at www.osha.gov.

Information needed for reporting:

• Establishment name;

• Location of the work-related incident;

• Time of the work-related incident;

• Type of reportable event (i.e., fatality, inpatient hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye);

• Number of employees who suffered the event;

• Names of the employees who suffered the event;

• Contact person and his or her phone number; and

• Brief description of the work-related incident.

Employers do not have to report an event if it:

• Resulted from a motor vehicle accident on a public street or highway;
  o Employers must report the event if it happened in a construction work zone.

• Occurred on a commercial or public transportation system (airplane, subway, bus, ferry, streetcar, light rail, train);

• Occurred more than 30 days after the work-related incident in the case of a fatality or more than 24 hours after the work-related incident in the case of an inpatient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye; or

• Hospitalization, if it was for diagnostic testing or observation only.
  o Employers do have to report an in patient hospitalization due to a heart attack, if the heart attack resulted from a work-related incident.

  It’s better to lose one minute in life… than to lose life in a minute.