About OSHARecordable.com

Medically Reviewed by an Occupational Medicine Physician

Why This Site Exists

OSHA recordkeeping rules are detailed, highly specific, and frequently misapplied. Anesthetic eye drops shift a routine foreign-body removal from first aid to recordable. A prescription-strength dose of an over-the-counter medication crosses the same line in the other direction. A non-displaced rib fracture with no treatment is recordable on the diagnosis alone. Most published guidance touches the surface of these distinctions but rarely walks through the clinical reasoning.

This site closes that gap. The decision tool walks through the criteria of 29 CFR 1904.7 step by step. The articles cover each of the recordkeeping triggers that show up in clinic — hearing loss, needlesticks, MSDs, day counting, privacy cases, the annual summary cycle, electronic submission, significant diagnoses, and injury rate calculation — with clinical examples and the common errors that drive OSHA citations.

Editorial Standards

Every page that addresses a recordability question is held to four standards before publication:

1. Primary regulatory source. The controlling reference is the current text of 29 CFR Part 1904 and OSHA's official letters of interpretation. Secondary commentary is used only when the regulation itself is silent and an OSHA-issued source is unavailable.
2. Clinical accuracy. Medical facts — diagnoses, treatments, dose thresholds, anatomical references — are reviewed against current clinical practice in occupational medicine. Where a clinical ambiguity affects the recordability determination, the page explains the ambiguity rather than papering over it.
3. No editorializing on the rules. We do not promote one recording approach over another beyond what the regulation and OSHA interpretations support. When an interpretation is contested or has shifted between administrations, the page identifies the disagreement.
4. Disclosure of limitations. The site provides general guidance, not legal or clinical advice for a specific case. Complex or contested cases require individualized review.

Review Process

Each new article and each update to an existing article goes through the same review pass:

• Draft against the controlling regulation text and OSHA letters of interpretation
• Clinical review by the Occupational Medicine physician for medical accuracy and real-world fidelity
• Cross-check against current OSHA forms (300, 300A, 301) and ITA submission specifications
• Worked-example validation — every example is checked against the criteria in the regulation
• Date-stamped on publication; revisited for revisions when OSHA or the underlying clinical guidance changes

We do not use auto-generated content as the final published text. Articles begin from clinical knowledge and the regulation, are drafted, edited, reviewed, and then published.

Who This Is For

• Safety managers and EHS professionals making day-to-day recordability decisions
• HR professionals handling workplace injury documentation
• Employers and business owners subject to OSHA recordkeeping requirements
• Occupational medicine clinicians, occupational health nurses, and clinic staff assessing treatment thresholds
• Workers' compensation professionals evaluating case severity
• Risk managers and underwriters reviewing TRIR, DART, and EMR drivers

Limits of This Site

Tools & Articles

• OSHA Recordability Decision Tool — Step-by-step recordability determination based on 29 CFR 1904.7
• Articles & Guides — Full reference library across the recordkeeping standard
• Medical Treatment vs. First Aid — Complete breakdown of the most commonly misunderstood criterion
• Work-Relatedness Under 29 CFR 1904.5 — Presumption rule and exceptions
• Frequently Asked Questions — Quick answers to common recordability questions