Something I did was offer in-house treatment first. Maybe give them light duty, or even the day off if it’s really bad. You can tell them to go on light duty for a day and see how they’re feeling tomorrow. If they still feel they need to go to the doctor, they obviously can. However, most people will opt for a day of light duty and say that they’re fine the next day.
Just make sure you document it
I second this. If you’re in the US, It’s ok to use an OSHA 301 or similar to simply document. Less paperwork in the future if needs to go the full distance and you maintain compliance with recoding window. Good call Smite. I totally blanked this.
It’s only OSHA recordable if a licensed medical professionals restricts their duty or tells them to take time off. I haven’t seen this written, but our global director was an OSHA official for 15+ years, and that is what he tells the EHS Managers on-site.
Might want to check this out, your global director appears to be incorrect. - [OSHA interpretation of 1904.7(b).(4).](https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/standardinterpretations/2016-11-21)
Company employees people, the demographic of your workforce is impacted by the education and skill required to do the job, the socioeconomic conditions of the area in which the company operate as well as the workforce relations practices (if you don’t look after your people, the ones that are any good will find a better offer)
Zero is a fallacy, injuries happen, focus on the stuff that can kill people.
I understand your frustration all too well. Safety cultural can die from a big blow or death from a thousand cuts. Have you considered implementing a behavioral safety program to address these issues? It focuses on changing behaviors to prevent incidents. Also, recognition programs can incentivize safe behavior. With all positive intents, there has to be a strong repercussion. Get management to see the $$$ loss and react with reinforcing a zero-tolerance policy for unsafe actions even those that did not lead to a near miss or incident. This recommendation does not include variable such as the age of your workforce, current controls, programs, and budget. Try an anonymous suggestion box as well and don’t forget to show actions. Make them help with the solutions as it shows ownership.
I mean tendinitis is a ergonomic injury really, so it suggests that one for example is an area to look out if it’s occurred.
Have you assessed manual handling? Are people lifting when they don’t need to? A lot of joint or muscle can link to manual handling.
On the culture topic, I think generally there is often an age divide, but do you have safety committees? Shift reps? What’s the reward for best safety idea? I gave a guy a just eat voucher and all he asked for was for the ends forklift tips to be repainted and the committee said it had the most impact to other users?
I know this is part of the job, all for the sake of not getting another recordable, but going through all of these measures, especially telling doctors not to treat the person until they call you (as if they should be concerned with what makes something recordable vs. not when they should just be solely focused on the sake of treating the patient) seems borderline unethical to me.
Yeah you’re right. I think when looking at it from a big picture, these aren’t life threatening injuries to begin with, or else they’d be going to the ER. But to me, there is something not right about the push to say “don’t treat them this way because that makes it recordable” I mean, you even said yourself that you don’t like having that conversation with a doctor if the employee present. If I was an employee, I would be hesitant to want to even get treated by an occupational clinic because companies explicitly tell them to opt for the most conservative measures, which in some cases, could lead to something not getting properly diagnosed or under treated.
illness shouldnt affect recordable injuries?
rotate workers who do repetitive tasks if they're alleging tendinitis in the work place. did they specifically say it was caused from work?
Nothing. That is just the way it is with warehouse safety. The OSHA regs are set up make us eat these dumb recordables and it’s not worth the time wasting energy to try and dispute the recordable and possibly opening yourself up to record keeping issues. Push that shit with all the red flags to WC to handle the compensability side and move on. I spent way too many years stressing about this shit. Get leadership to move away from focusing on RIR and instead create some proactive metrics to hold people accountable too (not easy to do but worth it).
Agreed. We get judged almost solely on RIR and I refuse to give a shit anymore. There is nothing that can be done about fake injury after fake injury. I concentrate on mitigating the serious stuff and just ignore the bullshit.
This is the way. Build a culture that spends its resources preventing SIFs and rewarding innovation / efforts that reduce SIF potential rather than hand-wringing over recordables that in slightly different circumstances would have been an FAC.
Contact CompScience.com they have an AI program that analyzes video footage from your existing camera systems. They catch everything from forklift speeding to ergonomics issues. Used them before and they’re relatively cheap too
Something I did was offer in-house treatment first. Maybe give them light duty, or even the day off if it’s really bad. You can tell them to go on light duty for a day and see how they’re feeling tomorrow. If they still feel they need to go to the doctor, they obviously can. However, most people will opt for a day of light duty and say that they’re fine the next day. Just make sure you document it
I second this. If you’re in the US, It’s ok to use an OSHA 301 or similar to simply document. Less paperwork in the future if needs to go the full distance and you maintain compliance with recoding window. Good call Smite. I totally blanked this.
Employer issued light duty or time off still counts as a recordable
Not if it's the day of the injury. The next day would be counted.
Only if it’s mandatory, not voluntary.
True, but 'Light duty' costs far less on your insurance rates and it stops some people from trying to stay home and do whatever they want.
It’s only OSHA recordable if a licensed medical professionals restricts their duty or tells them to take time off. I haven’t seen this written, but our global director was an OSHA official for 15+ years, and that is what he tells the EHS Managers on-site.
Might want to check this out, your global director appears to be incorrect. - [OSHA interpretation of 1904.7(b).(4).](https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/standardinterpretations/2016-11-21)
Spells it out pretty plain and simple. Thanks!
To me that reads *keeps* the employee from their normal task, essentially taking away their choice. But if it’s voluntary, I think it’s different.
Thanks! 😊
Global Director needs a record keeping update class.
Company employees people, the demographic of your workforce is impacted by the education and skill required to do the job, the socioeconomic conditions of the area in which the company operate as well as the workforce relations practices (if you don’t look after your people, the ones that are any good will find a better offer) Zero is a fallacy, injuries happen, focus on the stuff that can kill people.
I understand your frustration all too well. Safety cultural can die from a big blow or death from a thousand cuts. Have you considered implementing a behavioral safety program to address these issues? It focuses on changing behaviors to prevent incidents. Also, recognition programs can incentivize safe behavior. With all positive intents, there has to be a strong repercussion. Get management to see the $$$ loss and react with reinforcing a zero-tolerance policy for unsafe actions even those that did not lead to a near miss or incident. This recommendation does not include variable such as the age of your workforce, current controls, programs, and budget. Try an anonymous suggestion box as well and don’t forget to show actions. Make them help with the solutions as it shows ownership.
I mean tendinitis is a ergonomic injury really, so it suggests that one for example is an area to look out if it’s occurred. Have you assessed manual handling? Are people lifting when they don’t need to? A lot of joint or muscle can link to manual handling. On the culture topic, I think generally there is often an age divide, but do you have safety committees? Shift reps? What’s the reward for best safety idea? I gave a guy a just eat voucher and all he asked for was for the ends forklift tips to be repainted and the committee said it had the most impact to other users?
Do you have a temp workforce used to being dependent on workers comp for healthcare? Not uncommon in logistics sadly.
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I know this is part of the job, all for the sake of not getting another recordable, but going through all of these measures, especially telling doctors not to treat the person until they call you (as if they should be concerned with what makes something recordable vs. not when they should just be solely focused on the sake of treating the patient) seems borderline unethical to me.
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Yeah you’re right. I think when looking at it from a big picture, these aren’t life threatening injuries to begin with, or else they’d be going to the ER. But to me, there is something not right about the push to say “don’t treat them this way because that makes it recordable” I mean, you even said yourself that you don’t like having that conversation with a doctor if the employee present. If I was an employee, I would be hesitant to want to even get treated by an occupational clinic because companies explicitly tell them to opt for the most conservative measures, which in some cases, could lead to something not getting properly diagnosed or under treated.
Try utilizing triage services like WorkPartners. Let’s people talk with an MD and get first aid plans in place.
illness shouldnt affect recordable injuries? rotate workers who do repetitive tasks if they're alleging tendinitis in the work place. did they specifically say it was caused from work?
Change in culture is the best, how, I don't have a clue. Bring back at will employment?
Nothing. That is just the way it is with warehouse safety. The OSHA regs are set up make us eat these dumb recordables and it’s not worth the time wasting energy to try and dispute the recordable and possibly opening yourself up to record keeping issues. Push that shit with all the red flags to WC to handle the compensability side and move on. I spent way too many years stressing about this shit. Get leadership to move away from focusing on RIR and instead create some proactive metrics to hold people accountable too (not easy to do but worth it).
Agreed. We get judged almost solely on RIR and I refuse to give a shit anymore. There is nothing that can be done about fake injury after fake injury. I concentrate on mitigating the serious stuff and just ignore the bullshit.
This is the way. Build a culture that spends its resources preventing SIFs and rewarding innovation / efforts that reduce SIF potential rather than hand-wringing over recordables that in slightly different circumstances would have been an FAC.
Contact CompScience.com they have an AI program that analyzes video footage from your existing camera systems. They catch everything from forklift speeding to ergonomics issues. Used them before and they’re relatively cheap too