What Are the OSHA Injury and Illness Recordkeeping and Reporting Requirements?

What Are the OSHA Injury and Illness Recordkeeping and Reporting Requirements

OSHA is asking establishments to submit their work-related injury and illness data via the Injury Tracking Application (ITA).

Certain larger establishments are required to electronically submit information from OSHA Forms 300A, 300, and 301 (or equivalent) once a year to OSHA. This work-related injury and illness data is submitted to OSHA through the Injury Tracking Application (ITA). ITA FAQs are accessible at the ITA launch page as well.

Recordkeeping Requirements

Employers with 10 or more employees must record serious work-related injuries and illnesses on an OSHA form. (Certain low-risk industries are exempted.)

Please note: The following list of partially exempt industries are based on 2007 NAICS codes.

If an industry on the “Non-Mandatory Appendix A to Sub part B – Partially Exempt Industries” is no longer in the 2017 and 2022 NAICS, it would not affect your partially exempt status. {See FAQ 2-3 and 2-4}. Those minor incidents which require only first aid do not have to be reported.

This information is vital for employers, workers and OSHA in evaluating the safety of a workplace, understanding industry hazards, and implementing worker protections to reduce and eliminate hazards – preventing future workplace injuries and illnesses.

Where Can I Find OSHA 10-Hour Training?

  • Any work-related fatality.
  • Any on-the-job injury or illness that involves loss of consciousness, days away from work, restricted work or transfer to another job.
  • Any work-related injury or account where an employee required any treatment beyond first aid therapy.
  • Cancer, chronic irreversible disease or any other diagnosed condition related to the work; fractured or broken bones or teeth; punctured eardrums.
  • There is additional recording requirements for work-related conditions related to: needlesticks and sharps injuries; medical removal, hearing loss or tuberculosis.

How does OSHA define first aid?

  • Administering a non-prescription medication at nonprescription strength (for drugs available in both prescription and non-prescription form, a recommendation by a physician or other licensed health care professional to use a non-prescription medication at prescription strength is considered medical treatment for recordkeeping purposes);
  • Tetanus injections (other injections such as Hepatitis B or rabies for example would be considered to be medical treatment);
  • Flushing or soaking the areas between an artificial limb and your skin.
  • Covering the wound with bandages, Band-Aids™, gauze pads etc.; or applying butterfly bandages or Steri-Strips™ (other types of wound closure methods such as sutures, staples, etc., constitute medical treatment);
  • Using hot or cold therapy.
  • Temporary non-rigid means of support, such as elastic bandages, wraps or non-rigid back belts which enable the patient to return to work (rigid mechanisms and medical devices holding consequence mean medical treatment for recording purposes);
  • Temporary immobilization devices for use in transporting an accident victim (e.g. splints, slings, neck collars, back boards etc.).
  • Pawing of a fingernail or toenail for decompression, or aspiration of a blister;
  • Using eye patches.
  • Irrigating an eye or using a cotton swab to remove foreign bodies from the eye;
  • Splinters or other foreign material removed from areas other than the eye by irrigation, or some other simple means (for example, using tweezers and cotton swabs);
  • Using finger guards.
  • Massage (physical therapy or chiropractic are considered medical treatment for recordkeeping); or
  • The need to drink fluids to relieve heat stress.

What is OSHA’s definition of medical treatment?

  • “Medical treatment” is the taking care and managing a patient to speed up curing of disease or disorder.
  • For part 1904, medical treatment does not include:
  • Trips to a doctor or other licensed health care provider for the purpose of observation or counseling only.
  • Performance of x-rays and blood tests and the administration of prescription drugs used exclusively to facilitate diagnosis (e.g..,. Eye drops for dilating pupils); or
  • (b)Definitions: (1)(i) First aid means the following:
  • If an injury or illness is work-related and involves medical treatment beyond first aid, you must record it on the OSHA 300 Log.

Maintaining and Posting Records

Test records shall be retained at the worksite for five years. Employers are required to post a summary of the injuries and illnesses recorded last year each February through April. And copies of the records also must be given to current and former employees, or their representatives if asked.

Fatality and Severe Injury Reporting

Employers must report the death of a worker within 8 hours and an amputation, loss of an eye or hospitalization within 24 hours.

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