Medical Files

shjudd · February 2003

What exactly should be in employees medical files? If we don't have the employees pre-hired physical exam records will an OSHA fine us in the event we get audited?

Don D · February 2003

OSHA, as far as I know, is interested in your filing and retention mechanism for OSHA related incidents and certain training and right-to-know conferences. A pre-hire physical should certainly be in the file, if your practice is to receive the report from the medical facility (we do not want it!). Our medical file contains anything medical related, including drug screens, FMLA, OSHA, bloodborne pathogens training, short or long term disability notes and applications, anything ADA related or reasonable accomodation related. This is just a quick laundry list. I'm sure there are others. If in doubt, we file it in the medical file. That's a safe rule of thumb.

Pork · February 2003

SHJUDD: Dandy Don has it right; for your consideration, we establish a seperate FMLA file outside of the medical files. We only have drug testing and medical excuses for our other employees in the medical alphabetical files. Now, with the exception that We have a trucking fleet of 25 drivers, In their files, we keep it all together, with the exception of FMLA, ADA those are always seperate and a new file is established every time we have a new case. In these files is all documents pertaining to that singular action.

Hope this helps! Pork