OARS is designed to allow departments to set up internal policy & procedures for safety review. Using the PDF file, the OARS report can be routed along pre-defined organizational lines of communication for review. To accomplish this, save the report as a PDF file to your own directory before submitting. The report can then be attached to e-mail and routed. Electronic routing can take the place of current processes and minimize redundancy in processes.
As you complete the form, you are being asked to describe the incident. Each question has a different objective to gather a particular detailed piece of information. Keep in mind each small piece is part of a whole picture that describes the entire injury or illness.
We would like you to give us detailed information for injury & illnesses, accidents, and near misses. However, if there were multiple injuries please refrain from entering multiple choices for injuries or illnesses. This will artifically raise the overall number of injuries, illnesses and accidents.
The definition of the Nature of the Injury or Illness identifies the injury or illness in terms of its principal physical characteristic.
The general rule is to name the core injury or illness rather than its secondary injury or illness.
Further Rules of Selection:
If the "Nature of the Injury or Illness" results in two or more injuries or illness use the following rules to determine selection:
- When two or more injuries or illnesses are indicated and one is an after effect or complication due to medical treatment, chose the initial injury or illness.
- Example: The initial injury was a cut/laceration and later became infected developing into sepsis (virulent blood poisoning), choose Cuts, Lacerations under Traumatic Injury, Open/Surface Wounds, Burns, and Environmental Conditions, NOT Infectious, Bacterial and Viral Disorders.
- When two or more injuries or illnesses happen at the same time, and one is more severe than the other, select the more severe injury or illness.
- Example: If a fractured finger occurred while using a hammer because of a headache and eyestrain, choose Fractures under Traumatic Injury, Open/Surface Wounds, Burns, and Environmental Conditions NOT Symptoms, Signs, and Ill-defined Conditions.
- The definition of the Source of Injury or Illness identifies the object, substance, exposure, or bodily motion that directly produced or inflicted the previously identified Nature of the Injury or Illness.
- If the "Source of the Injury or Illness" results in two or more, use the following rules to determine selection:
- When an injury results from forcible contact with two or more objects, either simultaneously or in rapid sequence, and it is impossible to determine which object directly produced the injury, select the source of injury as:
- When the choice is between a moving object and a stationary object, select the moving object.
- When the choice is between two moving objects or between two stationary objects, select that object which was contacted last.
- Select bodily motion as the source of injury only when the injury resulted solely from:
- The stress or strain induced by free movement of the body or its parts (voluntary or involuntary),
OR
- From the assumption of a strain
- Do not name bodily motion as the source of injury if the injury occurred in the course of a fall; resulted from bumping into or striking an external object; or arose from lifting, pushing, pulling, wielding, or throwing an external object.
- If, as the result of an accident to a vehicle, a person who was in or on the vehicle is injured, name the vehicle as the source of injury.
You can save the form for future completion by choosing SAVE button at the bottom of the form. You can retrieve the form by going to View My Unfinished Reports.
When you choose the SUBMIT button, the report will be written to the OARS database. Once submitted, the form cannot be retrieved. Changes or Updates can be made to the report when the 72- hour or 30 day tickler is sent to you.
A 72-hour tickler and a 30-day e-mail tickler will be sent to you. If there are no updates, simply delete the email. Please answer all the questions on the form and click the update button. The purpose of this tickler is to gather updated information. Any changes to the report can be made at these two time intervals.
You can fill in as much of the form as possible, including the required fields. You can use the SAVE button to save the form to be retrieved later.
Using the SAVE button will enable you to retrieve the form at any time through the "View my Unfinished Report" function after you log-in. To save again use the UPDATE button
Using the SUBMIT button will write the report to the database. The only way to UPDATE the form will be when you are sent a tickler reminder. This will be sent to you at 72 hours and 30 days from date of entry.
There are help menus located on the OARS form indicated by Help. If you need further help, please send email to Injury@u.washington.edu or call the OARS Help Desk at 206.543.7388.
Most all sub menu choices have an "other" box. If your choice is not there, please type it in the other box. Over time, if that choice keeps re-appearing, it will be added to the permanent drop down menu choices.
RESET will clear out the entire form so that you do not have to erase every data field.
In order to use the SELECT button, you must check the category box first, such as "Contact with Object or Equipment", wait for the table to appear, check a sub category such as Struck by Moving Object, click SUBMIT again to verify your choice. Please choose the basic injury or illness. You can add the secondary injury or illness in the other field.
Before you submit or save, clicking on the PDF button will bring up the report you just filled out in PDF format. You can save the PDF file to your local hard drive (My Documents - often is the c:// drive). This PDF file can be routed as an attachment by e-mail through a pre-designated internal department/university communication channel.
*** Asterisks are used to show what data fields are required. If you do not enter the required information, when you submit or save, you will get an error message in red at the top of the form.
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