Eight questions. It tells you whether the case goes on the OSHA 300 log, which column it belongs in, and whether the clock is running on a call to OSHA.
It runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you tick is sent anywhere, stored, or seen by us.
1. Was it work-related? 1904.5
An event or exposure in the work environment caused or contributed to it, or significantly aggravated an injury or illness he already had (1904.5(a)). Significantly aggravated has its own test in 1904.5(b)(4): the work event or exposure has to bring on days away, restricted work or a job transfer that would not otherwise have happened, medical treatment he did not need before (or a change in his treatment), or a death or loss of consciousness the earlier condition would likely not have caused. A sore back that is a little sorer after an ordinary shift, and nothing more, does not meet it. If it happened in the work environment, work-relatedness is PRESUMED and stays presumed unless one of nine listed exceptions applies. 1904.5(b)(2) is a closed list of nine and it does not grow, and the five from symptoms through an injury he gave himself apply only where that is the SOLE cause, because the rule says solely for those five: being there as a member of the public rather than an employee; symptoms that surface at work but come solely from something outside it; voluntary wellness, fitness or recreational activity, including a blood drive or the company ball team; eating, drinking or preparing food or drink for his own consumption, such as choking on his own sandwich, but not an illness from food contaminated by something at work, such as lead dust, and not food poisoning from food the company supplied (1904.5(b)(2)(iv)); personal tasks at the establishment outside assigned hours; personal grooming, self-medication for a condition that is not work-related, or an injury he gave himself on purpose; a motor-vehicle crash on a company parking lot or access road while commuting; the common cold or flu; and mental illness, unless he voluntarily gives you an opinion from a physician or other licensed health care professional with appropriate training and experience (a psychiatrist, psychologist or psychiatric nurse practitioner, for example) stating that he has a mental illness that is work-related. Our reading: treating a work injury himself is not on it, because 1904.5(b)(2)(vi) excepts self-medication only for a condition that is not work-related. Horseplay is not on that list. Neither is carelessness, or ignoring the job safety analysis (JSA). A back that was already bad is judged by the aggravation test above, not excused.
Crews away from home are on travel status, and an injury then is work-related if the man was doing something in the employer’s interest, which driving a company truck to the job is. 1904.5(b)(6). Checking into the motel means he has left the work environment, whoever he is, so what he does there is judged the way you would judge anybody at home: a slip in the motel shower is not work-related. A second and narrower relief covers the motel-to-job commute itself, and THAT one only reaches somebody who has set up a home away from home and is reporting to a fixed worksite each day (1904.5(b)(6)). Our reading: a crew running four different pads is not reporting to a fixed worksite, so it does not get that half, and its drive from the motel is judged by the employer’s-interest test above. And a personal detour off a reasonably direct route is not work-related at all (1904.5(b)(6)). And note the parking-lot exception above is for a motor-vehicle accident on a company lot or access road: a state highway is neither. That does not make every highway crash work-related. 1904.5(b)(1) defines the work environment as “the establishment and other locations where one or more employees are working or are present as a condition of their employment. The work environment includes not only physical locations, but also the equipment or materials used by the employee during the course of his or her work.” Our reading: a man driving his own vehicle from home to the job on a public road, before his workday starts, is usually not in the work environment yet, so that crash is usually not work-related, and then it is neither logged nor reported. Our reading: a take-home company truck, a call-out, paid drive time, or a drive that is itself the work, such as hauling or running between locations, can put him in the work environment, and this checker cannot settle those for you. Travel status has its own rule, above (1904.5(b)(6)). Being unsure is not an exception, and neither is a heart attack. If somebody dies or is admitted after one at work, read question 5 before you answer this one.
2. Is it a new case? 1904.6
New means the worker has not previously had a recorded case of the same type to the same part of the body, or they had recovered completely from the last one (all signs and symptoms gone) and an event or exposure at work brought it back (1904.6(a)). Two more rules decide the in-between cases. When an event or exposure at work brings on the signs or symptoms of an injury or illness, such as an episode of occupational asthma, 1904.6(b)(2) says to treat the episode as a new case. Our reading: where the earlier case of the same type and body part never fully cleared, the rule does not say in words whether a fresh event at work makes a new case or worsens the old one, so do not guess. That is the call 1904.6(b)(3) lets a physician or other licensed health care professional make, and if you ask one, you follow the answer. And hearing loss has its own rule: the shift is measured against his revised baseline, the audiogram from the earlier recorded case (1904.10(b)(2)(i)), and the 25 dB test against audiometric zero on his current audiogram (1904.10(b)(2)(ii)); if both are met again, you record it. The other way round, a chronic work illness whose signs come and go without a new exposure, such as silicosis or asbestosis, is recorded only once (1904.6(b)(1)). If you asked a physician or other licensed health care professional whether it is new or a recurrence, you must follow that advice (1904.6(b)(3)).
3. What treatment or work limit was given or recommended? 1904.7
Pick the most serious outcome. A visit only for observation or counseling is not treatment, and neither is a test such as an x-ray or blood work, or a prescription drug used only for the test, such as drops to dilate the eye (1904.7(b)(5)(i)). What counts is treatment beyond first aid that anybody gave him, or that a physician or other licensed health care professional recommended. If a physician or other licensed health care professional recommends medical treatment and the worker turns it down, you still record the case (1904.7(b)(5)(v)). When two of them disagree, you may decide which recommendation is the most authoritative and record on that one (1904.7(b)(3)(ii) and (b)(4)(viii) for days away and restrictions, and OSHA’s letter of interpretation of May 12, 2006, for treatment, where the recommendations come at about the same time). But once medical treatment has been given, the case is recordable even if a second clinician later says first aid would have done (OSHA letter of interpretation, May 12, 2006). The full first-aid list is at the bottom of this page.
Count what the clinic RECOMMENDED even if the worker did not follow it, as well as what actually happened (days he missed, a restriction you put on him, treatment anybody gave). If a physician or other licensed health care professional recommends days off or a restriction and the worker works his full shift anyway, it is still recorded: as a days-away case with the number of calendar days the provider recommended (1904.7(b)(3)(ii)), or as a restricted-work case (1904.7(b)(4)(viii)), with the restricted days counted the same way (1904.7(b)(4)(xi)). A restriction you put on him yourself counts too, when you actually keep him from a routine task or from his full workday (1904.7(b)(4)(i)(A)). Telling him to go easy while he still does every routine task on his full shift is not a restricted-work case (1904.7(b)(4)(vi)); the rule that he is recorded even if he works anyway is about a provider’s recommendation. A restriction counts in either of two ways (1904.7(b)(4)(i)): it keeps him from a routine function of his job, meaning something he does at least once a week (1904.7(b)(4)(ii) and (b)(4)(iv)), or it keeps him from working the full workday he was scheduled to work. A worker sent home four hours into a twelve-hour shift because of the injury, on a day after the injury, is a restricted-work case even if he did every one of his usual tasks in those four hours (1904.7(b)(4)(v) and (b)(4)(vi)). No climbing ladders, for a shop mechanic who never climbs one, is not a restricted-work case (1904.7(b)(4)(iv)). If the note just says light duty for days after the day of injury, ask the provider whether he can do all of his routine functions and work his full shift, and if you cannot get an answer, record it as restricted work (1904.7(b)(4)(vii)). Our reading: a small crew with no light duty putting a restricted man back on the floor is the commonest way a recordable case goes unrecorded out here.
And it counts whoever gave it. Treatment beyond first aid is medical treatment even when nobody licensed provided it, so a rig medic closing a cut with staples out of the trauma kit is medical treatment and the case is recordable. 1904.7(b)(5)(iv).
Day counts, if you know them. Calendar days: do not count the day of the injury (1904.7(b)(3)(i)), and do count days he would not have worked anyway (1904.7(b)(3)(iv)). Restricted days are counted the same way (1904.7(b)(4)(xi)). One or more days away makes it a days-away case (1904.7(b)(3)), even if you picked something less above. Leave a box blank if you do not know yet; blank is not zero.
Days away from work
Days on restricted work or job transfer
4. Any of these? They record it whatever the treatment was.
Tick anything that applies. Each of these makes a case recordable on its own, even if the only treatment was a bandage.
If you ticked the medical removal: how was it carried out? A required removal is a days-away case or a restricted-work case, depending on which, and never the other-recordable column (1904.9(b)(1)). Until you say, the column is left open.
5. Did any of these happen? 1904.39
These are separate from the log. They mean you have to report to OSHA, and there is a deadline. 1904.39(a)(3) gives three ways: by telephone or in person to the nearest OSHA Area Office, by telephone to 1-800-321-OSHA, or by electronic submission at osha.gov.
Ten or fewer people all last year? You may owe no log at all. 1904.1(a)(1) exempts you from keeping OSHA injury records unless OSHA or the Bureau of Labor Statistics has written to you saying otherwise. Count the WHOLE COMPANY, not one yard, and count your PEAK for the year, not your average: 1904.1(b)(1) and (b)(2). Two yards of eight and nine under one company is seventeen, and seventeen keeps a log unless the industry is on the partially exempt list in 1904.2 (1904.1(a)(2)). The reporting duty below is not affected: every employer covered by the Act reports a fatality, an in-patient hospitalization, an amputation or a loss of an eye, log or no log. So the column answers above are for employers who keep records; the phone call is for everybody.
A heart attack is not an automatic pass. 1904.39(b)(5) asks “do I have to report a work-related fatality or in-patient hospitalization caused by a heart attack?” and its whole answer is “Yes, your local OSHA Area Office director will decide whether to investigate the event, depending on the circumstances of the heart attack.” So a work-related heart attack is reported like any other death or admission, and whether to look into it is OSHA’s call. Our reading: whether it is work-related is the same question 1 answers. One that happens in the work environment is presumed work-related (1904.5(a)), and it is not work-related only if it came solely from something outside work (1904.5(b)(2)(ii)). If you cannot settle that quickly, get help the same day rather than let it sit. The 300 log is still a separate duty: the call is owed even by an employer who keeps no log.
6. If you picked Fatality in 3 or ticked anything in 5: does an exemption apply? 1904.39(b)
Three things switch the reporting duty off. None of them changes the 300 log answer, which comes from questions 1 to 4: 1904.39(b)(3) and (b)(4) say the case must still be recorded, if you are required to keep records. This question is about a work-related case. An ordinary drive from home to work is usually not work-related to begin with (see question 1).
7. When did the incident happen?
Leave any of the times blank if you would rather not say. They are only used to work out the deadline and whether the window is still open, and nothing you type is sent anywhere.
8. When did each outcome happen?
The death, the admission, the amputation or the eye loss, each in its own box, and only the ones that happened. Not the incident, if they were different days. Each one has its own clock, running from that outcome, and its time also decides whether there is a duty at all: a death counts only within 30 days of the incident, the others only within 24 hours (1904.39(b)(6)). Leave one blank and the checker does not guess it: that outcome shows as a duty to call with its deadline unknown until you put its time in.
The death
The hospital admission
The amputation
The loss of an eye
Did you only learn of it later? If neither you nor anybody acting for you (a supervisor, a foreman) learned of the death, admission, amputation or eye loss when it happened, or you only learned later that it came from a work-related incident, that outcome’s clock runs from when you or your agent learned (1904.39(b)(7) and (b)(8)). Each outcome has its own box, because you can learn of them at different times. If you knew of one when it happened, tick it below instead of typing the time twice. A box left blank and not ticked is not assumed: that outcome’s deadline stays unknown until you fill it in.
When you learned of the death
When you learned of the hospital admission
When you learned of the amputation
When you learned of the loss of an eye
Answer the questions above
The verdict appears here as soon as there is enough to go on. Questions 1, 2 and 3 are the ones it needs.
This is guidance, not a determination. It applies the general rules in 29 CFR Part 1904 to what you ticked. It cannot see the medical records, and it does not know your state plan, which may be stricter than federal OSHA. The recording decision is the employer's, and a borderline case is worth ten minutes with someone who has made the call before. Read the rules yourself at eCFR Part 1904.
Send me what happened and I will tell you what I think. No charge and no pitch, and I will say so plainly if it is a call I would not want to make from a paragraph either. bprice@fhstac.com
Bryant Price, F&H STAC, Williston
The same recording decision the tool above walks through, laid out in the order the regulation makes it. The tool goes further on reporting to OSHA and on privacy cases, so use it for those. Useful if you would rather see the shape of the decision than answer questions, or if you want to print it and pin it up.
OSHA does not leave first aid to opinion. 1904.7(b)(5)(ii) publishes a closed list. If the treatment given is on it, it is first aid. If it is not on the list, it is medical treatment and the case is recordable. Nothing else counts as first aid, and the list does not grow.
Five items on that list reverse inside their own parenthesis, and four of them are marked above. The fifth is 1904.7(b)(5)(ii)(D): it puts butterfly bandages and Steri-Strips on the first-aid side, then says other wound closing devices such as sutures and staples are considered medical treatment. So a cut closed with stitches or staples is recordable.
A prescription counts even if it is never filled. Issuing a prescription at prescription strength is the treatment. What the worker does with the paper afterwards does not change it (1904.7(b)(5)(v); OSHA letter of interpretation to Maverick Tube Corp., filed under October 29, 2001 and written about the current rule).
A doctor visit is not treatment. An examination, an X-ray or a blood test is not medical treatment on its own (1904.7(b)(5)(i)). But check what came out of the visit: a significant diagnosis such as a cracked bone (1904.7(b)(7)), treatment beyond first aid that was recommended, days away, or a restriction that counts can each make the case recordable even when nothing was done at the visit.
A cracked bone is recordable however it is treated. A fracture diagnosed by a physician or other licensed health care professional, which includes the PA who read the x-ray, is a significant injury under 1904.7(b)(7), even if the answer was a sling and two weeks.
Observation is not a reportable in-patient hospitalization. The 24-hour call to OSHA is triggered by formal admission for care, not by a night in the emergency department for tests.
This checker runs the same recordability engine I build into the F&H STAC app. Inside the app one entry fills your official 301 and your 300 and 300A, opens the corrective action in your register, and watches the reporting clock. It works on a phone with no signal.
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