Public Health Law Map - Beta 5 - Medical and Public Health Law Site

employees at any time during the previous calendar year. This is an absolute limit of
10 employees, not an average or a full-time equivalent. An employer who has eight
part-time employees who are with him all year and three employees who only last a
month has eleven employees for the year and is not exempt.
Low-hazard industries are generally retail trade and service industries. This includes
such activities as sales of cars, clothes, and furniture; financial or legal service
industries, such as banking, insurance, and real estate; and eating establishments. It
does not include sales and service industries with a moderate or high rate of injuries
such as garden supplies, food stores, hotels and motels, repair services, amusement
and recreation, or health services industries.
It is noteworthy that hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and other medical care service
industires are not exempt from OSHA regulation or the OSHA 200 log. This is true
whether they are for-profit, not-for- profit, or owned by a church.
The keeping of the OSHA 200 log is the responsibility of the employer. A separate
log is kept for each establishment or business location and the manager determines
what entries are made. There are fines up to $70,000 for false entries in an OSHA log
and it is just as bad to make too many entries as too few. The entries are simple and
straightforward and they are expected to be correct.
The following information is required in an OSHA 200 log:
Case or file number
Date of injury or onset of illness
Employee’s name
Occupation
Department
Description of injury or illness
Extent or outcome of injury or type, extent of, and outcome of illness
The extent of injury or illness is defined by whether there were lost work days,
whether these days involved restricted work activity or days away from work and
whether the injury or illness was fatal. For illnesses, the log must note which of
seven categories of occupational illness is involved.
5. Recordable Injuries
Anyone who practices occupational medicine or nursing needs to know what injuries
and illnesses must be recorded on an OSHA 200 log and what makes them
recordable (Exhibit 15–2). Many large employers use the OSHA 200 log as a
measure of safety and/or quality of medical care. It is common for managers to be
evaluated on the injury rate in their plant and bonuses often depend on this rate.
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