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Status Change to Not Work-Related and Privacy Case
Question:
An employee reports groin pain after attempting a heavy lift in a warehouse. After a doctor evaluation, the employee is prescribed over the counter naproxen and one week off of work to rest the groin. A follow up visit is scheduled one week later after completing the rest. Upon the follow up evaluation, the doctor discovers the employee is suffering from a disease that is not work-related that is causing the groin pain. Is it recordable?
Answer:
NO. However, OSHA requires employers to determine OSHA recordable criteria within seven days of an injury. If the company had already recorded this incident as a lost time on their OSHA 300 Log, they would be able to mark a line over it in their log and file the supporting documentation from the healthcare provider accordingly. In addition, this case originally met OSHA “privacy concern case” criteria.
1904.29(b)(3) How quickly must each injury or illness be recorded? You must enter each recordable injury or illness on the OSHA 300 Log and 301 Incident Report within seven (7) calendar days of receiving information that a recordable injury or illness has occurred.
1904.29(b)(6) Are there situations where I do not put the employee's name on the forms for privacy reasons? Yes, if you have a "privacy concern case," you may not enter the employee's name on the OSHA 300 Log. Instead, enter "privacy case" in the space normally used for the employee's name. This will protect the privacy of the injured or ill employee when another employee, a former employee, or an authorized employee representative is provided access to the OSHA 300 Log under §1904.35(b)(2). You must keep a separate, confidential list of the case numbers and employee names for your privacy concern cases so you can update the cases and provide the information to the government if asked to do so.
1904.33(b)(1) Do I have to update the OSHA 300 Log during the five-year storage period? Yes, during the storage period, you must update your stored OSHA 300 Logs to include newly discovered recordable injuries or illnesses and to show any changes that have occurred in the classification of previously recorded injuries and illnesses. If the description or outcome of a case changes, you must remove or line out the original entry and enter the new information.