Do I have to report every recordable injury to OSHA?

No. Most recordable cases are recorded on the 300 log and never reported. Only fatalities, in-patient hospitalisations, amputations and loss of an eye carry the 8-hour or 24-hour reporting duty.

Is an emergency room visit a reportable hospitalisation?

Usually not. The reporting trigger is in-patient hospitalisation for treatment. Treatment in an emergency department that does not result in admission is generally not reportable, though it may still be recordable.

Does the 8-hour clock start when the injury happened?

No. It starts when the employer learns of the fatality — and a death within 30 days of a work-related injury counts.

Toolve / Recordable / Reporting deadlines

Reporting is not recording

Recording a case puts it on the 300 log. Reporting a case means telling OSHA, on a clock, the same day. A partially exempt establishment still has to report; a recordable case usually does not need reporting. Getting these two confused is how employers end up with a citation for something that never appeared on a log.

The two clocks (1904.39)

Event	Deadline	Notes
Work-related fatality	Within 8 hours of learning about it	Includes fatalities occurring within 30 days of the work-related injury
In-patient hospitalisation	Within 24 hours	For treatment, not for diagnostic testing or observation only
Amputation	Within 24 hours	Includes an amputation that occurs later as a result of the injury
Loss of an eye	Within 24 hours	Diagnosed loss, not a temporary injury

Report by calling the OSHA area office or the 24-hour number, or through OSHA's online reporting form. The clock starts when the employer learns of the event, not when the injury occurred.

The distinction that trips people up

"In-patient hospitalisation" is about reporting. An emergency-department visit that ends with the employee sent home is not an in-patient hospitalisation for reporting purposes.
"Days away from work" is about recording. A case can be recordable with days away and never reportable, because nobody was admitted.
Amputations and eye loss are reportable even if the employee is never hospitalised, and even if the case would otherwise be first aid only.
Fatalities have a 30-day tail — if an employee dies within 30 days of a work-related injury, the 8-hour clock applies from the moment the employer learns of the death.

What still has to be reported when you are exempt from recordkeeping

The partial exemptions for small establishments and low-hazard industries remove the duty to keep routine injury and illness records. They do not remove the duty to report fatalities, in-patient hospitalisations, amputations and loss of an eye under 1904.39.

State Plan employers

State Plan states run their own reporting arrangements. Some accept reports through the same federal number, others require a state portal or a state duty officer. The deadline is usually the same, but check the State Plan's own reporting page for the workplace location.

What to have ready when you call

Establishment name, address and the name of the person reporting;
Date and time of the event, and the date the employer learned of it;
What happened, in one or two sentences, and the body part affected;
Whether the person was admitted, and which hospital;
The number of employees at the establishment.

Not sure whether the case is recordable? Walk it through the decision tool — it returns the call, the citation and the privacy flag.

Recordable or not — the decision tool · All recordkeeping pages · Privacy · Contact

Reporting is not recording

The two clocks (1904.39)

The distinction that trips people up

What still has to be reported when you are exempt from recordkeeping

State Plan employers

What to have ready when you call

Basis & sources