Occupational Health & Safety Hub.com » Recordkeeping

GAO Issues New Report on Underreporting of Workplace Injuries

admin — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:45:21 +0000

In a survey of 504 occupational health practitioners (including company doctors & nurses), the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded that the government has not done enough to ensure that the reporting has been accurate.

The findings include:

More than 33% of the doctors/nurses said they were pressured to provide insufficient treatment so that the job-related injuries did not show up on injury logs.
More than 50% of the doctors/nurses said they were pressured from upper management to downplay injuries & illnesses.
More than 65% of the doctors/nurses said they knew of employees who would not report injuries & illnesses to avoid disciplinary measures.

The findings were further complicated by the fact that employees are often rewarded for maintaining “safe-work” environment for long periods of time, thereby reducing reporting.

The GAO is recommending that the Secretary of Labor direct OSHA to do the following:

Require inspectors to interview workers during records audits, and substitute other workers when those initially selected are unavailable;
Minimize the time between the date injuries and illnesses are recorded by employers and the date they are audited;
Update the list of high hazard industries used to select worksites for records audits; and
Increase education and training to help employers better understand the recordkeeping requirements.

OSHA agreed with these recommendations.

The highlights of the GOA report can be found HERE.

See also: OHShub.com’s post: OSHA to Toughen Federal Oversight of State Programs

Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts

Calculators: Injury and Illness Incidence Rate & DART

admin — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:39:02 +0000

Want to calculate your Injury and Illness Incidence rate (I&I) and/or your Days, Away, Restrictions and Transfers (DART) rate? Use OHShub.com’s Incidence Rate and DART Rate calculator (Excel spreadsheet format) to determine your rates.

Download the Calculator HERE for use on your computer:Incidence Rate and DART Rate Calculator (201)

Sample Screenshot IR & DART Calculator

Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts

OSHA NEP: Under Recorded Injuries and Illnesses

admin — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:00:15 +0000

Effective September 30, 2009, OSHA has begun a new National Emphasis Program (NEP) for inspecting the accuracy
of the Occupational Injury and Illness Recording and Reporting Requirements for low rate establishments in selected industries.

OSHA postulates the most likely places where under-recorded injuries and illnesses may exist
would be low rate establishments operating in historically high rate industries. The NEP will
pilot test OSHA’s ability to effectively target establishments to identify under-recording of
occupational injuries and illnesses.

This NEP is one component of OSHA’s effort to address the issue of inaccurate recording of
occupational injuries and illnesses. In addition to this NEP, OSHA will address the issue through
comprehensive training of its compliance staff to identify and correct violations of the
recordkeeping regulation. OSHA will also develop other enforcement and quality assurance
programs to address the recordkeeping issue in establishments and industries outside the scope of
this NEP (e.g., the construction industry, Partnerships, VPP and SHARP establishments).

Industries included have a DART (days away, restrictions and transfers – based on the 200,000 hour benchmark) rate of 5.7 to 8.1 and include:

Animal slaughtering
Scheduled passenger air transportation
Steel foundries (except investment)
Other nonferrous foundries (except die-casting)
Concrete pipe manufacturing
Soft drink manufacturing
Couriers
Manufactured home (mobile home) manufacturing
Rolling mill machinery and equipment manufacturing
Iron foundries

Nursing care facilities
Fluid milk manufacturing
Seafood canning
Marine cargo handling
Copper foundries (except die-casting)
Bottled water manufacturing
Refrigerated warehousing and storage
Motor vehicle seating and interior trim manufacturing
Pet and pet supplies stores

It should be noted that if a company is an approved participant in OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP), or in OSHA Consultation’s Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP), it is to be deleted from the inspection list.

More information can be found HERE (Injury and Illness Recordkeeping National Empasis Program)

Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts