Many years ago OSHA issued a list of 14 items that qualify as First Aid.
If the incident required only the First Aid treatment, the case did not need to be recorded. Yet we still see Connecticut businesses that are listing everything on their OSHA Logs.
Just because an employee visits the occupational health clinic for a workers’ compensation claim, does not automatically make it an OSHA recordable case!
The 14 items that OSHA considers First Aid are:
- Using non-prescription medications at non-prescription strength (i.e. over the counter Motrin)
- Administering tetanus immunizations
- Cleaning, flushing or soaking wounds on the skin surface
- Using wound coverings, such as bandages, gauze pads, butterfly bandages, etc.
- Using hot or cold therapy
- Using any totally non-rigid means of support, such as elastic bandages or wraps
- Using temporary immobilization devises while transporting injured employee (splints, slings, neck collars)
- Drilling a fingernail or toenail to relieve pressure, or draining fluids from blisters
- Using simple irrigation or a cotton swab to remove foreign bodies not embedded in or adhered to eye
- Using eye patches
- Using irrigation, tweezers, cotton swab or other simple means to remove splinters or foreign material from areas other than the eye
- Using finger guards
- Using massages
- Drinking fluids to relieve heat stress
So, before just adding another case to your OSHA Log, check to make sure it is really a recordable incident. If you really aren’t sure whether to enter a case on your OSHA 300 Log or not check it out at www.osha.gov and click on R for Recordkeeping. This will take you through the steps to determine if a case is recordable or not.