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James Tarpo Jr. and Margaret Tarpo
Department of Chemistry

Reporting Illness/Injury/Incident

Illness/Injury

Purdue Employees who are hurt or made ill by their work or conditions in their workplace, while in pay status, are required to complete and submit a First Report of Injury/Illness (FROI) form and a Chemistry Department Incident Report within 24hrs of incident, following immediate care.  It is safer to complete the form even if it is not completely certain that an illness has been caused by the workplace.  Payment of your medical expenses might be delayed if you do not get the Worker's Compensation claim into the system promptly.

Graduate and undergraduate students registered for research for credit (e.g. 197, 499, 599, 699) who are hurt or made ill by their research work or conditions in their research area are required to complete and submit a Chemistry Department Incident Report as soon as possible, even if the injury is not very serious, and even if it's not completely certain that an illness has been caused by the research area.  Medical expenses are not covered by Workers' Compensation if you are not in pay status when then injury/illness occurred.

Failure to report quickly can result in disciplinary action, legal liability, and/or cause difficulty in paying medical charges if any such charges have been or will be incurred.

  

First Aid Kits

  • First aid kits are not required (by OSHA or any other regulations) in areas that have 5 min medical response time, which Purdue has in all locations except some remote farms and research stations out of town.
  • Any first aid kits provided for employees in the workplace must abide by the regulatory requirements including a maintained inventory of the kit.  The inventory must be checked and logged regularly on a log sheet during monthly intervals.  Finally, all inventory must not be expired and in good working condition.

Given these conditions, it should be understandable why the official position of Purdue and EHS is that first aid kits are not recommended in any areas having 5 min emergency medical response. But keep in mind that "we don't recommend it" is not the same as "we recommend that you not have them", logically as well as legally.  If a work area has a first aid kit and keeps it updated carefully as per the listed requirements, no requirement to remove it will be issued.

Finally, even though aspirin, Tylenol, and ibuprofen are over-the-counter medications, they have been legally regarded as "medication".  Only a licensed medical care provider is allowed to administer any sort of medication to an employee, therefore, most workplaces (including Purdue) do not allow aspirin or other pain medication to be kept in a first aid kit. Reminder: pain medications can only be self-administered.

 

Graduate Student Workers’ Compensation Benefits and Liability Insurance

See Graduate Student Employment Manual section on Risk Management Programs.

The University provides coverage to those who are injured while performing duties assigned as an employee in line with the Workers’ Compensation and Occupational Disease Act of Indiana.  This includes coverage for graduate staff.  Workers’ compensation provides benefits to employees who experience accidental injury or illness "arising out of" and "in the course of" employment.

In the event of a workplace injury, to qualify for Worker’s Compensation, the relevant supervisor must be notified immediately, even if the employee does not require immediate medical care.  If treatment is needed, the supervisor is required to complete the First Report of Injury (FROI) form as soon as possible, but no later than 24 hours after being notified of the employee's workplace illness or injury.  The FROI form as well as the Worker's Compensation Witness Report Form can be found on the Environmental Health and Safety website.  Employees who require medical treatment for a work-related injury or illness need to make sure they seek treatment at an approved treatment facility.  The employee's supervisor will confirm that the employee has transportation to the appropriate medical facility on the day of injury. 

Note that Worker’s Compensation is not the same as Graduate Staff Medical Insurance, which is paid for by the graduate staff unless they opt out.