What Is an OSHA Recordable Injury?

Example of an injury that may be OSHA recordable depending on the treatment provided and OSHA's recording criteria.

How to Determine if an Injury Is OSHA Recordable

An injury that must be recorded on the OSHA 300 log is considerd "recordable" if it is:

• work-related

• a new injury case

• and results in any one of the following:

  • death

  • days away from work

  • restricted work or transfer to another job

  • medical treatment beyond first aid

  • or loss of consciousness.

What is medical treatment beyond first aid?

Any medical treatment for the injury beyond OSHA's first-aid list is generally considered "recordable".

Common examples include:

Examples of medical treatment beyond first aid for OSHA recordable injuries

Therefore:

• First aid only → Not recordable.

• Medical treatment beyond first aid → Recordable.

Does just going to the Doctor make it an OSHA recordable?

No.

Again, it is treatment beyond first aid that makes it recordable. A doctor can clean a wound and put a bandage on it, even while in an emergency room, and it is still considered first aid.

Many companies use OSHA's list of first aid treatment to determine this.

OSHA first aid treatments that do not make an injury OSHA recordable

Also, it is important to note that recordable does not mean reportable

Many employers confuse these terms.

• Recordable means the incident must be entered on the OSHA 300 Log.

• Reportable means OSHA must be notified immediately because of a severe event, such as:

  • A work-related fatality (within 8 hours)

  • An inpatient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye (within 24 hours)

What is "work-related"?

If the work environment caused or contributed to the injury, it is considered "work-related". If a worker reported the injury to management as being caused or contributed to by their work environment and it meets OSHA's recording criteria, then it must be recorded. Whether the workers' compensation carrier ultimately accepts or denies the claim is a separate issue.

A caution about "recordable" injuries

In my experience, there tends to be an over emphasis on preventing "recordables". Although this is based on good intensions, we can communicate to workers that we are more concerned about protecting paperwork requirements instead of protecting people. This can have a negative impact on safety culture and psychological safety of workers.

We want to prevent injuries as best as we can, for sure. But we are still working in a hazardous environment and will likely have injuries even though we do all we can to not have them. When management understands that, they send the right message to workers that we want to protect them from injury, but if they have one, we will give them the care they deserve and record it as OSHA requires.