Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S) tracks and investigates work-related incidents to help prevent injuries and illnesses, and to maintain safe and healthy workplaces. UW Medicine is also tracking work-related injuries and illnesses, but in a separate system.
Workplace injury and incident reporting is required by federal and state regulatory and funding agencies.
IF AN INCIDENT OCCURS, TAKE THESE STEPS:
1. Obtain medical care - follow immediate first aid/medical care measures.
2. Notify your supervisor.
3. Submit a report in the Online Accident Reporting System (OARS) within 24 hours if possible.
If there was an exposure to a hazardous material, follow EH&S exposure response procedures while awaiting medical follow up.
INCIDENTS THAT REQUIRE IMMEDIATE NOTIFICATION
Notify Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S) immediately (after first aid/medical care/emergency services) if a workplace incident involves any of the following since EH&S reports these to regulatory and funding agencies:
- In-patient hospitalization, amputation, loss of an eye, or fatality
- Recombinant/synthetic DNA/RNA exposure or spill
- Radioactive material spill, exposure, accidental exposure from a radiation producing device or laser
- Fire
During EH&S business hours (8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday to Friday) call (206) 543-7262.
Outside of EH&S business hours, call the UW Police Department at (206) 685-8973 to reach EH&S on-call staff.
REPORTING INSTRUCTIONS
UW personnel are required to submit an incident report to EH&S for any work-related incident that results in an injury, illness, exposure to hazardous materials, damage to property where there was a potential for personal injury, or fire regardless of the work location. UW personnel are highly encouraged to submit work-related near-miss events.
The reporting requirement includes workplace incidents involving or impacting UW personnel (staff, faculty, and students), and includes student workers and work volunteers. The work setting may be a University-owned and operated location, a field site, and an off-campus location where University activities are occurring.
Incident reports can be submitted by the injured person, their supervisor, or anyone with a UW NetID. The supervisor completes incident reports by adding the root cause and corrective actions to prevent recurrence. Incident reports are private and disclosed only on a need-to-know basis with representatives in UW Human Resources, Claims Services, EH&S, and department or unit leadership.
Workers are protected from discrimination and retaliation when exercising their workplace safety and health rights per the Washington Industrial Safety and Health Act.
When incidents occur and they are not work-related, please use the report a safety concern form.
Types of work-related events to report
Any harm to a person, including physical injury, that may or may not require first aid (e.g., use of medication, band-aids, ice packs, etc.)
Workplace illnesses that can result from exposures to infectious agents, communicable diseases, and/or heat
Workplace contact with hazardous materials such as chemical, biological, or radiological agents; contact could be with the eyes, nose (inhalation), mouth (ingestions), or skin (absorption or injection).
Includes flames and/or smoke, even if the fire goes out by itself
Work-related events involving damage to property where there was potential for personal injury
A potentially unsafe condition or behavior at work where no injury, illness, or property damage occurred; however, given a slight shift in time or position, an incident could have occurred. For example, if a worker tripped while walking, but was not injured, this would be considered a near-miss event. Near-misses are valuable opportunities to correct potential hazards.
Report safety concerns
Please report general safety concerns via the EH&S Report a Concern form. Reports can be submitted anonymously.
Safety concerns are defined as any condition, practice, or violation that has the potential to result in physical harm, property damage/loss, and/or environmental impacts.
Some concerns are managed by the impacted department or UW Facilities and their reporting processes:
- Damage to UW vehicles - UW Facilities Fleet Services
- Concerns with a facility, parking lot, or grounds on the Seattle campus –UW Facilities
- Building related concerns on the Seattle campus - building coordinator
- UW Bothell safety concerns - contact UW Bothell Campus Safety
- UW Tacoma safety concerns - contact UW Tacoma Safety and Security
Assistance
For assistance with completing an incident report, please refer to the frequently asked questions below or contact us at injury@uw.edu.
If you will be working at a location without internet access, download and save or print the Incident Report Form (PDF) prior to leaving internet service. Complete the PDF after an incident occurs and type the information into the UW’s Online Accident Reporting System when you return to internet service.
Responsibilities
The following groups and individuals have responsibilities for incident reporting.
In the event of a work-related injury, illness, exposure, property damage with potential for personal injury, fire, or near-miss incident, personnel are required to submit an incident report using the UW’s Online Accident Reporting System (OARS) within required timelines.
When personnel initiate a report using the UW’s Online Accident Reporting System (OARS), the supervisor is contacted by the system and asked to add information, including the result of their root cause analysis and suggested corrective actions to prevent future incidents. Supervisors are encouraged to review the online course, Five Whys Root Cause Analysis, to better understand how to conduct a root cause analysis.
EH&S oversees workplace health and safety and maintains the University's workplace injury and illness reporting system. EH&S reviews reports and follows up as needed. Some incidents require a separate EH&S investigation and reporting to regulatory or funding agencies. EH&S provides incident reports (without personally identifiable information) to the designated health and safety committee for review and follow-up as needed. EH&S tracks incident trends and addresses them through our accident prevention program including campus safety efforts, such as the UW Accident Prevention Plan, the Supplemental Accident Prevention Plan Template, safety training, resources, safety programs, and policies.
Labor and Industries requires the formation of Health and safety committees, who hold safety meetings with the purpose of creating and maintaining a safe and healthy workplace for all employees. The University has ten health and safety committees, and they meet each month to review redacted incident reports and follow up with their units/departments as needed on corrective actions.
University units and departments are responsible for providing a safe and healthy workplace. Units and departments should encourage personnel to report safety concerns to their supervisor or EH&S, support incident prevention measures, and require reporting of work-related injuries, illnesses, exposures, fires, property damage with potential for personal injury, and near-miss events using the UW’s Online Accident Reporting System (OARS).
Download an Incident Reporting Poster and place it where personnel can view it as a reminder of the importance of timely reporting.
Frequently asked questions
If you are a UW employee injured at work or believe you have a work-related illness, you can file a worker's compensation claim with the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries (L&I). Completing an OARS report will not initiate a worker's compensation claim. The OARS reporting requirement is independent and separate from filing a workers' compensation claim for a work-related injury.
More information, instructions, and assistance regarding Workers’ Compensation is available at the UW Compliance and Risk Services website.
Workplace violence: Report workplace violence concerns or events to SafeCampus or call 206.685.SAFE.
Motor vehicle accidents: Visit the UW Facilities Transportation Services or the Tacoma Motor Pool website for specific procedures following a collision or vehicular accident involving a UW vehicle. If the accident was work-related and resulted in injuries, report the incident in OARS.
Building or outdoor campus maintenance safety concerns: Report facilities-related concerns on the Seattle campus to UW Facilities or email the Customer Care Team (careteam@uw.edu) or submit a work order using their ReADY system. Report a UW Bothell facilities concern to their campus work request system. Report a UW Tacoma facilities concern to their facilities service request system.
Use the Report a Concern form to report safety concerns to EH&S. The report a concern form is used to report conditions, practices, or violations that may result in an injury, illness, non-compliance, damaged or lost property, and/or environmental impacts. The Report a Concern form can be submitted anonymously. Use the OARS system( and not the Report a Concern form) to report a work-related injury, illness, exposure, fire, damaged property resulting in a potential injury, or a near miss.
Other concerns including food complaints, hazardous material spills, pest or wildlife sightings, and indoor air quality (dust, odors, temperature, mold) are reported to EH&S following the instructions on the Report webpage.
- Log on to the Online Accident Reporting System (OARS) with your UWNetID.
- Click once on the menu item Create New Incident Report. The system can be slow to respond and doesn’t respond to double-clicks like most applications.
- Page 1 - Person Involved: Select Supervisor if you are the supervisor of the person affected, select Self if you are the person affected, or select University Representative if you are reporting on behalf of another person (and you are not their supervisor).
- If you selected Supervisor or University Representative, you will be asked to identify the affected person. In the Person Involved or Affected section, these buttons will appear: Faculty/staff, Graduate Student, Undergraduate Student, Contractor, Public, Volunteer
- If you select “Faculty/Staff” or “Graduate Student,” then click Select Involved.
- Enter the name or UWNetID of the person affected.
- Click Search UW Directory.
- Click on the button next to the person’s name and click Select Person at the bottom of the page.
- Click Select Supervisor and repeat the steps above.
- Click “Next” to continue.
- Page 2 - Description: Enter the incident details.
- Select a date and time.
- Select a campus from the dropdown menu.
- Click Select to search a list of most known locations on each campus.
- Enter the building name or parking lot code in the Building/Parking Lot field.
- Click Search for Location.
- Click the button next to the location and click Select Location at the bottom of the list.
Tips:
- When searching for Magnusson Health Sciences, enter “MAG” in the Building/Parking lot field (not to be confused with the new Health Sciences Education Building).
- If you are unable to find the location in the list, click Back to Report and type the location in the Other field.
- Add details of the incident in the Incident Details box.
- Click Next.
5. Page 3 - Classification: Select the type of incident.
- Select Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3 by clicking the button next to the Level heading.
- Select the best description of the incident type within the level you selected.
- Select at least one item under Injury Description, Body Parts Affected, and Cause or Potential Cause of Injury/Damage.
- Click “Next” to continue.
6. Page 4 – Details: Provide additional details and contributing factors
- Complete the top of page 4 only if the injury or near miss involved a slip, trip, or fall.
- In the Contributing Factors section, select at least one item from any of the four categories.
- The Suggested Corrective Actions section is an opportunity for you to contribute suggestions regarding the root cause(s) of the incident and recommendations to improve workplace safety. This section is optional; however, it is an important step in helping prevent future incidents.
7. Click Save Progress and Submit Initial Report.
If any required fields were not completed, you’ll see a red error message.
Contact injury@uw.edu if you need assistance.
When the initial report is submitted, the affected person and supervisor will receive an email with the report attached. The supervisor will be asked to complete pages 5 and 6.
- Log on to the Online Accident Reporting System (OARS) with your UWNetID.
- Click once on the menu item Supervisors: Finish Reports Involving me as Supervisor.
- Review the incident details in pages 1-4 before completing pages 5 and 6.
- Enter your root cause analysis and recommendations/preventive measures on pages 5. (If you need a refresher on root cause analysis, refer the free online course “Five Whys Root Cause Analysis.”)
- Click “Save Progress” and “Next”.
- On the top left of page 6, enter a corrective action target date. Indicate that yes, you approve the investigative and corrective actions planned.
- When corrective actions are complete (which may take days or weeks), return to the top right of page 6 to fill in the corrective action completion date (which cannot be in the future) and indicate yes, you confirm the action(s) are complete. You can make additional comments as needed.
- Click “Save Progress” and “Submit Final Report.”
Yes, you can use the Report a Concern form to report safety concerns anonymously.
Use the Report a Concern form to report incidents involving non-UW personnel to EH&S.
The Report a Concern form can be submitted anonymously. Please don’t use the Report a Concern form to report a work-related injury, illness, exposure, fire, or near miss.
OSHA 300A Injury and Illness Summaries
The OSHA 300A Summaries of Injuries and Illnesses for the University of Washington are available on the Work-Related Incident Reports page.