Maintain OSHA Compliance With Effective Incident Investigations

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has strict requirements when it comes to maintaining a safe, healthy workplace. Part of that entails required accident and injury reporting. But future safety compliance goes a step further: prevention. And prevention begins with investigating the incident to find out why it happened so you can prevent it from happening again.

Unfortunately, many incident investigations are inefficient, which leaves you unable to identify the real root cause of an incident. How effective are your investigations in preventing future incidents?

The What, Why, Who and When to Investigate

As per the OSHA Safety and Health guidelines, investigations are incident‐prevention tools and an important part of a workplace occupational safety and health management program. As you seek to identify and control workplace hazards, bear in mind these questions:

• What defines an incident? A worksite incident includes any fatality, injury, illness or close call that happens on the job. A close call is a situation that didn’t cause harm but could have if the circumstances were different.
• Why investigate? An investigation into an incident gives employers and workers the opportunity to identify hazards in the workplace and gaps in their safety and health programs. Most importantly, it allows employers and employees an opportunity to identify and implement corrective actions, demonstrating to OSHA a commitment to workplace health and safety and the prevention of future workplace injuries and illnesses.
• Who should conduct the investigation? Generally, a supervisor or manager would lead the investigation, but an effective investigation takes a team of various levels of employees working together, who can offer insight from different perspectives.
• When should you investigate an incident? You should be prepared to investigate an incident before it actually occurs. This includes putting a plan in place regarding notifying management, OSHA, and outside agencies such as the fire department and police. The plan should also include who will investigate, the training they will need to do so, and the timetable they have to work with. The actual investigation should hold off at least until you get first aid for any injured personnel.

Nine-Step Investigation

An effective investigation should be well planned and organized. If you don’t have a plan in place, the emotions of the moment can cause overwhelming confusion. The National Safety Council offers these nine steps to conducting an incident investigation:

1. Call or gather the necessary person(s) to conduct the investigation and obtain the investigation kit.
2. Secure the area where the injury occurred and preserve the work area as it is.
3. Identify and gather witnesses to the injury event.
4. Interview the involved worker.
5. Interview all witnesses.
6. Document the scene of the injury through photos or videos.
7. Complete the investigation report, including determination of what caused the incident and what corrective actions will prevent recurrences.
8. Use results to improve the injury and illness prevention program to better identify and control hazards before they result in incidents.
9. Ensure follow-up on completion of corrective actions.

Additional Resources

Check out these additional resources for more information on how to effectively investigate an incident:

• OSHA Fact Sheet: The Importance of Root Cause Analysis During Incident Investigation
• OSHA: A Systems Approach to Help Prevent Injuries and Illnesses
• Investigation Guidance from OSHA/National Safety Council (NSC)

Don’t Delay Severe Injury Reporting

While you attempt to uncover an accident or injury root cause, don’t overlook the reporting requirements! Employers must report all work-related fatalities to OSHA within eight hours, and all work-related inpatient hospitalizations, amputations and losses of an eye within 24 hours. Not sure how to report? There are three easy ways:

1. Call OSHA’s toll-free, confidential number at 1-800-321-OSHA (6742).
2. Contact your regional OSHA office during normal business hours. Need help locating your closest area office? Find your local OSHA office by state here.
3. Submit an online form.