Understand the Safety Terms – Lost Time Injury

Lost Time Injury (LTI) is a work-related injury or illness that results an individual is unable to work on a subsequent scheduled work day or shift.

Example: An employee is injured on the job on Wednesday. He was scheduled to work on Thursday and Friday on regular time and Saturday on overtime. He was instructed to stay off work until Monday, and did so. This is a lost time injury. The employee missed three scheduled days of work (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) and all three days are counted as lost workdays for this case.

Restricted work case (RWC) is a work-related injury or illness that results in limitations on work activity that prevent an individual from doing any task of his/her normal job of from doing all of the job for any part of the day.

Example: An employee’s normal job requires repetitive lifting and other manual labor duties. He is injured and is restricted to lifting no more than 5 kilogram. Many items normally lifted in his job exceed this limit. The employee is temporarily assigned to another department because work in this area does not involve lifting. Another employee is assigned to do the injured employee’s job. This is a restricted work case because the employee was transferred to another job.

Medical treatment case (MTC) is a work-related injury or illness that calls for medication, treatment, or medical check that is normally administered by a health-care professional and that goes beyond first aid case. Medical treatment case does not result in lost time from work beyond the date of the injury.

Example: An employee has a lacerated arm after coming in contact with sharp edge. The plant nurse applies steri-strips to the wound. This case is recordable because application of steri-strips as a wound closure is considered medical treatment by definition.

First Aid Case (FAC) is a minor work-related injury or illness that calls for only simple treatment and does not call for follow-up treatment by a health-care professional. First aid case does not result in lost time from work or work restrictions.

First aid. Any one-time treatment and subsequent observation of minor scratches, cuts, burns, splinters, and so forth, which do not ordinarily require medical care. Such treatment and observation are considered first aid even though provided by a health-care professional.