An OSHA reportable injury is a severe workplace event that employers must report directly to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration within a strict deadline. Only four categories qualify: a work-related fatality, an in-patient hospitalization, an amputation, or the loss of an eye. This is a narrower requirement than OSHA recordkeeping, which trips up many employers who confuse the two.
Reportable vs. Recordable: The Key Difference
OSHA has two separate systems for tracking workplace injuries, and mixing them up is one of the most common compliance mistakes. “Recordable” injuries are logged internally on OSHA forms and kept at your workplace. “Reportable” injuries must be communicated directly to OSHA itself, usually by phone or online, within hours of the event.
Many employers with more than 10 employees are required to record work-related injuries and illnesses on OSHA Forms 300, 300A, and 301. These logs cover a broad range of incidents: anything resulting in death, days away from work, restricted duty, job transfer, medical treatment beyond first aid, or loss of consciousness. But you don’t call OSHA about most of these. The direct reporting obligation kicks in only for the four most severe outcomes.
The Four Reportable Events
Every employer, regardless of size or industry, must report these events to OSHA:
- Death: Any work-related fatality that occurs within 30 days of the incident.
- In-patient hospitalization: When one or more employees are formally admitted to a hospital (not just treated in an emergency room and released).
- Amputation: The loss of any body part, including fingertip amputations.
- Loss of an eye.
For hospitalizations, amputations, and eye losses, the event only needs to be reported if it occurs within 24 hours of the work-related incident. Fatalities have a longer window of 30 days.
Reporting Deadlines
Fatalities must be reported to OSHA within 8 hours. In-patient hospitalizations, amputations, and losses of an eye must be reported within 24 hours. These clocks start ticking from the moment the event happens, not from the end of a shift or the next business day.
If you don’t learn about the event right away, the deadline resets. The 8-hour or 24-hour window begins when the incident is reported to you or anyone acting on your behalf. The same applies if you initially don’t realize the injury was work-related: the clock starts once you or your agents learn about the connection.
How To Report
Employers have three options for reporting a severe injury or fatality to OSHA:
- Call the nearest OSHA area office
- Call OSHA’s 24-hour hotline at 1-800-321-6742
- Submit a report through OSHA’s online reporting portal
The hotline is available around the clock, which matters for incidents that happen on night shifts or weekends when local offices are closed.
What Counts as Work-Related
An injury is presumed work-related if it occurs in the work environment. But OSHA carves out several exceptions where an injury that happens at work still doesn’t count. You don’t need to record or report an injury if it results solely from:
- Voluntary participation in a wellness program, fitness activity, or recreational event like a company softball game
- Personal grooming or self-medication for a non-work condition
- Eating, drinking, or preparing food for personal consumption (choking on a sandwich at your desk, for example)
- A motor vehicle accident in the company parking lot while commuting
- Personal tasks done outside assigned working hours
- The common cold or flu (though contagious diseases like tuberculosis or hepatitis A are work-related if contracted at work)
- Self-inflicted injuries
Mental illness has its own rule: it’s not considered work-related unless the employee voluntarily provides a statement from a qualified mental health professional confirming the connection.
Medical Treatment vs. First Aid
Understanding this distinction matters because it determines whether an injury is recordable in the first place. If the only treatment an injured worker receives qualifies as “first aid” under OSHA’s specific list, the injury is generally not recordable (and certainly not reportable).
OSHA defines first aid narrowly. These treatments all count as first aid only:
- Over-the-counter medications at nonprescription strength
- Tetanus shots (but not other immunizations like hepatitis B or rabies vaccines)
- Cleaning or flushing surface wounds
- Bandages, gauze pads, butterfly bandages, or adhesive strips (but not sutures or staples)
- Hot or cold therapy
- Elastic wraps or non-rigid supports (but not rigid splints or braces designed to immobilize a body part)
- Temporary splints or slings used only during transport
- Drilling a nail to relieve pressure, or draining a blister
- Eye patches
- Removing foreign material from the eye with irrigation or a cotton swab
- Removing splinters with tweezers or irrigation
- Finger guards
Anything beyond this list is “medical treatment” and makes the case recordable. The lines can feel arbitrary. A wound closed with butterfly strips is first aid; the same wound closed with stitches is medical treatment. An elastic back wrap is first aid; a rigid back brace is medical treatment. A non-prescription painkiller at standard dose is first aid; the same drug recommended at prescription strength by a doctor becomes medical treatment.
Importantly, simply visiting a doctor doesn’t make an injury recordable. Visits solely for observation, counseling, or diagnostic tests like X-rays and blood draws don’t count as medical treatment.
Who Is Exempt From Recordkeeping
Small businesses with 10 or fewer employees at all times during the previous calendar year are generally exempt from routine OSHA recordkeeping. Certain industries classified as low-hazard based on their injury rates are also exempt. These exemptions cover dozens of sectors, spanning portions of retail, finance, real estate, professional services, and others where injury rates fall below the national average.
But here’s the critical point: even fully exempt employers must still report the four severe events. The recordkeeping exemption only excuses you from maintaining the ongoing injury logs. If a worker dies, is hospitalized, loses a limb, or loses an eye, every employer in every industry must pick up the phone or file a report online within the required timeframe.
Electronic Submission Requirements
Beyond the immediate reporting of severe events, many employers must also electronically submit their injury and illness records to OSHA on an annual basis. Establishments with 100 or more employees in certain higher-risk industries are required to submit data from Forms 300, 300A, and 301. The deadline for submission is March 2 of the year following the covered year, so calendar year 2024 data was due by March 2, 2025. Some state plans, such as Minnesota’s, impose additional submission requirements on private-sector employers.