I was challenged recently by another safety professional concerning recording Lost Work Day injuries.

Here is the senerio: An employee reports a pain in his shoulder. The date the employee reports the pain is the date of injury. Employee is sent to the doctor, the doctor says the employee needs surgery. The surgery is scheduled and performed a few weeks later. On the day of surgery the employee does not work but the doctor says he can come back on modified duty the day following the surgery. I recorded this as a lost work day because the employee could not work on the day of surgery. The other safety professional said that the day of surgery does not count because the doctor had the employee come in for a proceedure and the surgery arrised out of the day of injury.

I can't find anything that supports his position. Is the day of surgery a lost work day when the injury date and surgery date are different?

 

fifem,

Take a look at 1904.7(b)(3) indicates that if the employee is away from work due to an injury then you must record it as such. 1904.7(i)(A) describes "medical treatment". One of the exceptions is visits solely for observation or counseling. This is not what is occuring. I think your challenger is incorrect but I could be wrong.

It odd but you seem to have the date of the injury, a period regular or light duty, a lost day, and another period light duty. You'll probably need to keep a good chronology with this file.

 MikeCJ

I agree, you have one day lost time.  To have prevented this lost day, you could have had the employee come to work before the surgery, clock in and then clock out.  That would have made it a restricted day instead of a lost time day.

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Safety Management '82
Indiana State Univ.

The day of the surgery should count as a lost (missed) work day in your example.