OSHA RECORDKEEPING & REPORTING: Quiz – Who Records Injuries to Temps?

Retrieved from: Occupational Safety & Health Administration

 

SITUATION

A hospital hires a part-time nurse from a temporary employment agency and assigns her to work in the medical lab. The temporary agency pays the nurse and is responsible for filing all workers’ compensation claims on her behalf. But the nurse works directly under the supervision of the lab director, a full-time employee of the hospital. On her first day of work, the nurse cuts her hand on a glass pipette and needs eight stitches.

QUESTION

Who must record the injury in the OSHA 300 Log?

1. The hospital because it supervises the nurse
2. The temporary employment agency because the nurse is the agency’s employee
3. Both the temp agency and the hospital
4. Neither the temp agency nor the hospital because the injury isn’t recordable under OSHA standards

 

ANSWER

1.The hospital must record the nurse’s injury because it supervises her.

EXPLANATION

According to the OSHA Recordkeeping Standard, when a temporary employee gets hurt at a host organization’s workplace, the organization that supervises the work done by the temporary employee on a day-to-day basis is responsible for recording the injury (Sec. 1904.31). Supervision involves control over the “details, means, methods and processes by which” work is carried out.

The hypothetical makes it clear that the nurse in this case was under the supervision of the hospital lab director. (In fact, it would be almost impossible to imagine a situation in which a temporary nurse would not be under the supervision of the host hospital since hospitals must maintain tight control over the administration of care). So a hospital would almost by definition have to record injuries and illnesses suffered by temporary nurses.

WHY WRONG ANSWERS ARE WRONG

2 is wrongbecause the obligation to record an injury or illness in the OSHA 300 Log is based on who supervises the worker, not on who employs her. Since the hospital is the supervisor, it must report the injury, even though the temp agency pays the nurse and files the workers’ comp claim on her behalf.

 

3 is wrong because it’s simply not true that both sides must record the injury. Only one side does–the one that supervises the employee. In this case, that’s the hospital.

4 is wrong because a cut to the hand of a nurse is recordable under the OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Standard.