Accident Investigation for Workers’ Comp

Following a workplace injury, it is vital for your company to gather as much information as possible by conducting an accident investigation. This is important because it will help determine if you should certify the claim immediately or look into it further. It will also help identify:

• If your employees need more safety training
• If you have the correct and adequate safety equipment
• If your company should undergo an ergonomic study
• If there are certain trends among your injuries
• If particular departments/locations experiencing more injuries and why

After the injured worker reports the claim, make sure your company documents everything thoroughly and reports all necessary information to your Managed Care Organization (MCO). This may include but is not limited to the following items.

Accident Investigation Report

The accident investigation report should include a description of the accident with as much detail as possible. For example, document what time/date the accident occurred, the time/date when the accident was reported by the injured worker, where the accident occurred, what exactly the injured employer was doing at the time of the accident, what part of the body was injured, and if the injured person sought treatment.

It is helpful to have an Accident Investigation Report form that your company can use for each workplace injury. If you do not have one, contact your MCO.

Complete the Accident Investigation Report as soon as possible after the injury occurs but no more than 24 hours later.

Supervisor Report

If the injured worker does not report the injury directly to their supervisor, make sure the supervisor completes their own report. The supervisor should review the accident investigation report and add any other information that was not included initially. This gives the supervisor a chance to determine if there are any safety concerns resulting from the injury or if there is a common thread among the types of injury they are seeing.

The supervisor should complete their report as soon as possible after the injury occurs but not more than 24 hours later.

Witness Statement(s)

Make sure you gather statements from all employees who witnessed the accident. You will want to include their statement, in their own words, in the reporting. Many employers have a witness statement where the employee can write out their account of the injury to ensure it is their own words. Much of the same information from the Accident Investigation Report should be included in the witness statement (i.e., when and where did the accident happen, a description of the accident…).

If there are no witnesses to the accident, and especially if the injured employee works in close proximity with co-workers, make sure you gather non-witness statements. This would include statements from the co-workers indicating they did not witness any type of injury/accident, the injured employee did not make any statements of getting hurt, etc.

The witness statements should be completed as soon as possible after the injury occurs but no more than 24 hours later.

First Report of Injury

The First Report of Injury is a form from the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation and is required for every new workplace injury in Ohio. If you do not have these forms available, contact your MCO.

Your Managed Care Partner

Once your company has gathered all necessary information, contact your MCO immediately to report the injury.  They will let you know if any required documentation is missing.

Outlining clear accident investigation procedures and immediately reporting injuries are crucial steps in ensuring that all workplace injuries and claims are handled correctly and in a timely manner. If you don’t currently have a post-injury process in place, lean on the experts at your Ohio MCO to help you develop a comprehensive plan to guide you through every stage of a claim.

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