OSHA website takes the guesswork out of recordkeeping rule

If you've ever wondered whether a particular injury or illness needs to be recorded or which provisions of the OSHA regulations apply, you'll appreciate a new website. OSHA's interactive tool is aimed at helping employers better understand and comply with federal recordkeeping and reporting requirements.

Called the OSHA Recordkeeping Advisor, the site simulates an employer's interaction with a recordkeeping rules expert. It is one of OSHA's Employment Laws Assistance for Workers and Small Businesses Advisors, or elaws.

Employers go on the site and begin clicking on the appropriate answers to various questions. The first question is: Is the affected person on your company or organization's payroll?

Updated information sought to protect tunnel workers (02/04/13)
Redesigning, rotating may reduce musculoskeletal disorders (02/04/13)
Technological advancements allow manikins to test protective clothing (02/04/13)
Cellphone, driving myths (05/13/13)
Top cause of workplace injuries, fatalities often preventable, experts say (05/13/13)

Clicking "yes" leads to a page titled Presumption of work-relatedness. Clicking "no" prompts questions to describe the affected person's relationship to the company or organization.

Depending on the answers chosen, the tool asks additional questions about the nature of the injury or illness and the circumstances surrounding it. For example, one question asks: Did an event or exposure occurring in the work environment cause or contribute to the resulting injury or illness, or significantly aggravate a preexisting injury or illness?

The available answers include:

Yes, it caused or contributed to the resulting condition or it "significantly aggravated" a preexisting condition (with a link for the definition).
No, it did not.
I am not sure it "caused or contributed" to the resulting condition.
I am not sure it "significantly aggravated" a preexisting condition.

Clicking on "I am not sure it significantly aggravated a preexisting condition," prompts the question: Did an event or exposure in the workplace result in the affected employee:

Missing one or more days away from work?
Having one or more days of restricted work?
Having one or more days of job transfer?
Getting medical treatment beyond first aid?
Losing consciousness?
Dying?
Having Standard Threshold Shift in hearing?
None of the above.

The program relies on the user's responses to questions and automatically adapts to the situation presented. OSHA says the responses are strictly confidential, and the "system does not record or store any of the information."

Read more at the WorkersComp Forum homepage.

July 21, 2011

Newsletter Sign-up