Is it a recordable?
Had a couple of employees doing work on a pond. The first one they went to had signs posted warning of blue green algae. We said don’t do the work there and move on. Went to another lake, nothing posted. While working, one employee fell out of his kayak and went in the water. Nothing reported at this time. Later overnight was not feeling well. Vomitted in the morning and went to ER and they gave him fluids and wrote him out a couple of days. Would you call this an OSHA recordable?
Comments (8)
If it's from the employee falling in the water, then yes, it's a recordable. Do you know what they diagnosed him with?
Initially there is one question. Did an illness occur due to the course of "work" or employment? It sounds like it as you described it. I would "pencil" (can you tell I use to completed 300's in the 70s?), the recordable on the OSHA 300 Log. It also sounds like you got a Lost Time. I agree with Drew
However, as you seem to indicate you have some alarms bells ringing. Just because you have put the illness on the OSHA Log does NOT mean you cannot keep investigating! I would want a doctor's report to read the exact diagnosis. What was the cause of the vomiting? I would be looking for what drugs were prescribed? Is there and infection, is a bacterial or viral? Bacteria would indicate the pond as the cause, a virus could be more like a common cold. Does the doctor feel the illness is work related and most importantly WHY?
I would interview the employee thoroughly! What did they eat that day. Do they have any food allergies or others? Yes, did they eat at McDonalds? Anyone else been sick at home or in the workplace near the employee? I would lab test the pond water if still curious!
If I got anything interesting I would forward the info to the doctor and ask them to revisit their diagnosis. If after that I still had questions I have sent many a employee for an IME!* If I have another medical opinion that the illness is not work-related I would "line out" the Recordable!
In the last 15-years of my career as a large site manager (HR/H&S) I would thoroughly investigate ever potential Recordable! I would leave no stone unturned! I would call doctors and whatever else I needed to do. We had a universal corporate mandate to have a Recordable rate of >1.0. With 400 employees in a machine shop I could not have >3 Recordables a year! So every one was very closely reviewed!!!! Every year, "Momma's new shoes (a raise for everyone") depended on it!" So you better believe we did not put them down unless we sure it was work-related! Yeah I lined out my fair share!
Ok got some more info finally. Released paperwork says diagnosis is unspecified vommitting and diarrhea and employee is excused from work but number of days was left blank. We are paying for this as a company and do not want this to be a workers comp claim.