Well-organized occupational safety, risk assessments and regular safety training can significantly minimize the risk of accidents in companies.
However, accidents at work cannot be completely avoided and, in the event of an accident, affect the company's success and the health of its employees.
The right behavior can reduce the damage caused by accidents at work, increase safety for the people involved and lead to an improvement in occupational safety in the company in the long term.
Proper documentation and analysis of the accident and first aid services are essential.
In this article, we explain when an accident is an occupational accident, how to act correctly in an emergency and how to document occupational accidents correctly.
The most important facts in brief
✓ Accidents at work are accidents that occur during the performance of insured activities or on the way to and from work. They are legally regulated in Social Code VII and must meet certain criteria.
✓ In the event of an accident at work, employees should provide first aid immediately and call the emergency services.
✓ Every accident at work must be documented in the first-aid book, regardless of the severity of the injury.
What are occupational accidents?
What makes an accident an accident at work is legally regulated in Social Code VII. The following criteria must be met for statutory accident insurance to recognize an accident as an accident at work:
- The person concerned carries out an insured activity that serves the company's purpose.
- The journey to and from work is also insured. Detours due to carpooling, picking up your own children from nursery or school, traffic jams or roadworks are also covered. However, private detours, such as to the shops, are not covered by accident insurance.
- The person concerned is insured. The group of insured persons includes, for example, all salaried employees, mini-jobbers and interns.
What should be done in the event of an accident at work?
1. providing first aid and making the emergency call
If an accident occurs at your workplace, you should attend to the injured as quickly as possible. Provide first aid and call the emergency services. However, make sure you protect yourself and do not put yourself in unnecessary danger. Every first-aid intervention can determine the further course of the accident. The training of company first aiders is therefore particularly important.
2. visiting the transit doctor
Accident insurance physicians are responsible for the treatment and care of injuries following accidents at work and draw up a report for the accident insurance institution.
The responsible doctors should be made known within the company. You can also find accident insurance physicians in your area on the DGUV website.
It is recommended that you consult an accident insurance physician after every accident at work. In the following cases, this is absolutely necessary:
- The accident at work results in an inability to work that extends beyond the day of the accident.
- The medical treatment of the injured or ill employee is expected to take over a week.
- The prescription of remedies or aids is required.
- This is a recurrence of illness as a result of a previous accident at work.
3. documentation in the first-aid book
Every accident at work should be documented as a matter of urgency, even if it is only a minor injury.
Correct and comprehensible documentation in the dispatch book and the reporting of accidents at work ensure that the insurance company will cover the costs.
The dispatch book then serves as proof that the person concerned suffered the health damage during working hours or on the way to work. In addition, even small, seemingly harmless injuries, such as a cut on the finger, could lead to long-term damage to the employee's health.
If the incident is not recognized as an accident at work, the accident insurance may not cover the treatment and loss of earnings.
The first aid book is used to document all incidents that have led to injuries. Every first aid service must also be documented there. The accident report must be archived for 5 years in accordance with DGUV regulations. You can find a template for documenting an accident at work here.
What data is important for documentation?
- Name of the injured person
- Place and time of the accident at work
- Course of the accident, if possible with the cause of the accident or injury
- Type of injury
- Time of treatment of the injury
- Type and manner of first aid measures
- Date of first aid service / time of first aid service
- Name of the first aider
- Names of the witnesses
4. notifications of reportable accidents at work
All accidents at work that cause incapacity to work for more than 3 days and fatal accidents must be reported in accordance with § 193 SGB VII. For all other incidents, an internal company accident report is sufficient. Here you should document all relevant information as described and forward it to the HR department.
5. analysis of the incident and preventive measures
If you conscientiously document all accidents at work, it will be easier to identify accident black spots and clusters in your company. The dispatch log serves as a basis for deriving suitable countermeasures to prevent similar accidents in the future.
You can also learn from near misses. If you also record incidents that fortunately did not result in personal injury or damage to property, but could happen in the future, you can specifically prevent accidents at work.
From these near misses, you can identify hazards in your company and recognize opportunities to improve occupational safety.
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