Serious Injury & Illness Reporting

Per Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) regulation, employers shall report any work-related serious injury, illness, or death to OSHA as soon as practically possible. OSHA defines an injury or illness as serious if it:

  • Requires inpatient hospitalization for a period longer than 24 hours, for reasons other than medical observation
  • An employee suffers a loss of any limb of the body
  • An employee suffers any serious degree of permanent disfigurement

Reporting procedure

In the event of serious injury, illness, or death:

  1. Visit Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) or call 1.405.670.6800; 804 immediately. 
  2. The EH&S staff will take the facts about the incident and the status of the injured employee(s) from the supervisor and/or the employee(s).
  3. The EH&S staff will report the incident to the OSHA.
  4. The supervisor must follow up on the incident within 24 hours and document corrective actions (using the Incident Investigation Report).
    • EH&S will review all submissions and contact supervisors as needed for follow up.
    • The goal of incident investigations is to prevent incidents from recurring, not to assign culpability.

Who contacts OSHA?

  • The head of EH&S is the designated Company authority to report serious incidents to OSHA.
  • Supervisors and co-workers must not contact OSHA directly to report serious incidents.

What are the time limits for reporting?

  • EH&S shall report all serious incidents, injuries, and illnesses to OSHA as soon as practically possible, but not longer than:
    • 24 hours after an incident involving serious injury or illness.
    • 8 hours after a death has occurred.
  • Failure to immediately report serious incidents and injuries to EH&S can result in OSHA citations and fines.

Additional information on incident reporting

Have a question?