OSHA Announces New Site-Specific Targeting Inspection Plan Based on Electronic Recordkeeping Rule Data

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has initiated a Site-Specific Targeting 2016 (SST-16) Program using the injury and illness information electronically submitted by employers to initiate OSHA inspections. OSHA Directive No. 18-01, CPL 02, effective October 16, 2018.

As of October 16, and for the next 12 months, federal OSHA will be conducting comprehensive, wall-to-wall inspections, either a safety or a health inspection – or both, based on certain employers’ electronic filing in 2017 of their 2016 OSHA 300A Annual Summary forms. These programmed inspections apply to non-construction workplaces – including hospitals and long-term care facilities with 20 or more employees that OSHA selects from among what it calls High-Rate and Low-Rate Establishments.

The SST-16 indicates that “OSHA will create inspection lists of establishments with elevated Days Away, Restricted or Transferred (DART) rate, together with a random sample of establishments that did not provide the required 2016 Form 300A data to OSHA.” The inspection cycles are generated using software that randomly selects the establishments from among those that fall into the categories above. According to OSHA, the purpose of including non-responding employers on the inspection list is to deter employers from failing to report their injury and illness information to avoid inspection. Similarly, OSHA will select a sample of low DART rate establishments to verify the reliability of the 300A data being submitted to the agency. The scope of the inspection will be comprehensive, and not simply limited to recordkeeping practices or potentially hazardous areas or operations that caused an elevated DART rate. Employers who have received a comprehensive safety or health inspection within 36 months of the creation of the SST-16 inspection list will not be inspected again.

If you are in a state with its own OSHA program, your state-run program will have until April 16, 2019, to either adopt the federal OSHA SST inspection plan or to implement their own targeting policies and procedures.

Lessons for Employers

Although employers can prepare to some extent for an OSHA visit when they self-report fatalities, hospitalizations, and amputations, SST inspections are unannounced and random. OSHA has not described in its new directive how an employer can determine whether its DART rate is high enough to make it a High-Rate Establishment subject to such comprehensive inspections. The best advice is that if your healthcare facilities’ DART rate is above the national average for your North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code, assume that you are subject to, and therefore be prepared for, a comprehensive SST inspection. Most healthcare systems will fall under the NAICS Code 622110 and can be viewed by accessing the NAICS Main Page at https://www.census.gov/eos/www/naics/index.html.

Comprehensive inspections generally consume significant time and resources of the target facility and have historically resulted in substantial citations and financial penalties. Employers that submitted 2016 Form 300A data should compare their establishments’ DART rates with their industry’s average to determine whether they will be subject to targeted inspections. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) provides several online resources, such as the Incidence Rate Calculator and Comparison Tool. Remember and beware that OSHA also intends to inspect a random sample of establishments with low DART rates[t]o verify the reliability of the Form 300A data reported to OSHA.” All employers must remain vigilant in maintaining compliance with all applicable OSHA standards.

In the SST-16, OSHA clearly lays out how the agency plans to use the injury and illness data it now electronically collects from employers. Given the tangible impact the data will have on programmed OSHA inspections, employers are advised to take a proactive approach to monitor and address patterns in their injury and illness rates and should take care to ensure they are submitting accurate records to OSHA. As a practical matter, you should probably just do the right thing and get in compliance now so that you do not have to worry about whether your workplace is on a targeted list.

By Stephen A. Burt, BS, MFA
Chair, Government Affairs Committee