The University has incident reporting procedures in place to comply with federal and state regulations. Incidents resulting in personal injuries to students, faculty, staff, and visitors while on University property, or in the course of University employment or activity, are to be reported to the Safety and Risk Management Office within 24 hours.
On-campus: dial 8911 (campus phone) or 828.227.8911 (cell phone)
Off-campus: dial 911
Accidental Injuries
Work-related accidents which result in a death must be reported to the Safety and
Risk Management Office within 8 hours. Work-related accidents which result in hospitalization,
amputation, loss of eye(s), lost work time, or require medical treatment must be reported
to the Safety and Risk Management Office within 24 hours. The Safety Office will
investigate the accident for the purpose of analyzing the circumstances surrounding
the injury, the possible need for corrective action, whether it is compensable under
the North Carolina Workers' Compensation Act, or if additional regulatory reporting
is required.
Occupational Illness
Occupational illnesses are medical disorders resulting from exposures to workplace
environmental factors such as chemicals, biological agents, noise, repetitive motion,
radiation, etc. The exposure may be a short term over-exposure or may occur over
a longer period of time. Acute illness from short term over-exposure and any direct
exposure to blood or body fluids are to be reported to the Safety and Risk Management
Office following the same procedure as accidental injuries. Illness from long term
suspected exposures are to be reported within 24 hours of the time the employee is
informed of a possible chronic illness by a medical physician.
Employee Incident Report Form
Employees involved in an accident or occupational illness should report it to their
supervisor immediately and will be required to complete an Employee Incident Report Form providing factual information about the accident or illness. The form must be forwarded
to the Safety and Risk Management Office within 24 hours or as soon as possible of
the accident.
Supervisor Incident Investigation Report
The immediate supervisor of an employee involved in an accident or occupational illness
is responsible for determining the cause of the accident or illness. As the manager
in charge of daily work activities, supervisors are expected to know what happened,
why it happened, and how it happened. After conducting the accident investigation,
the supervisor must submit the Supervisor Incident Investigation Report to the Safety and Risk Management Office within 24 hours or as soon as possible of
becoming aware of the accident.
Eyewitness Statement
A statement should be taken from each person who witnessed the accident using the NC Witness Statement Form and forwarded to the Safety and Risk Management Office within 24 hours. The witness
may have actually seen the accident or may have acquired knowledge about the accident
from another source.
Additional information about employee accident reporting can be found on the Workers' Compensation webpage.
Near Miss Accidents
Employee accidents which do not result in an injury or illness but could have under slightly different circumstances should also be reported to the Safety and Risk Management Office. Reporting a near miss allows us to determine how and why it occurred and to take action to prevent a similar, or more serious, incident from happening in the future. The Reporting a Hazard or Near Miss Accident form should be used to report such events.
Reporting Student or Visitor Accidents
The Student and Visitor Incident or Accident Report Form should be used for all injuries not classified as work- related. Injuries for students and visitors should be documented using this form or by a departmental reporting form approved by the Safety and Risk Management Office.
Laboratory Accidents
Students injured in laboratory accidents should fill out the Lab Accident Form. The laboratory supervisor should fill out the accident form and return it to the Laboratory Safety Officer at alafferty@wcu.edu as soon as the accident occurs.