What this is
What is an MSD injury report?
What is an MSD injury report?
It is the record raised once a musculoskeletal disorder is diagnosed and confirmed, distinct from the discomfort report that may have preceded it by weeks or months. It captures the body region affected, how the injury developed, the medical and work outcome, and the exposure and control history behind it.
How is this different from a discomfort report?
A discomfort report is raised by the worker while symptoms are still ambiguous, before a diagnosis exists. This record is raised after that diagnosis, by the supervisor with the worker, and it exists partly to determine OSHA recordability and partly to establish why the exposure was not controlled beforehand.
Why does the form ask about a prior assessment?
Because the most useful finding in an MSD injury report is often not the injury itself but the gap it exposes. If a task assessment already scored the job as acceptable and an injury happened anyway, the method or the input to that assessment was wrong, and that is worth more to the programme than the individual case.
Scope
When is a msd injury report required?
This record exists to document a confirmed musculoskeletal injury and the exposure that produced it. It is not the vehicle for reporting discomfort, running the task assessment, or recording the intervention that should have happened earlier.
Use this template when
- A musculoskeletal disorder has been diagnosed and confirmed for a named worker and task
- The injury needs an OSHA recordability and reportability determination made and documented
- The case needs to be linked back to any discomfort report and forward to a task assessment
- An investigation is needed into whether the exposure was known and whether controls were followed
- Others doing the same task need to be checked for similar risk once the case is confirmed
Do not use it for
- Discomfort Report (ERG-001), for aches or pain reported before any diagnosis exists
- Body Part Symptom Survey (ERG-002), for mapping discomfort across a team rather than one confirmed case
- Early Intervention Record (ERG-004), for the action taken in response to discomfort before it becomes this
- Task Ergonomic Assessment (ERG-006), for the underlying job evaluation this report should trigger or revisit
- General incident or injury forms outside KnowErgo, for harm that is not musculoskeletal in nature
Compliance mapping
Which OSHA 1904 requirements does this satisfy?
Neither instrument prescribes a form. OSHA 1904 sets the recordability and reportability test that this record must answer; WorkSafeBC's musculoskeletal injury requirements set the duty to identify and respond to the risk factors once a case is confirmed.
| Clause | Requirement | Where it lands |
|---|---|---|
| OSHA 1904.7 | General recording criteria: medical treatment beyond first aid, restricted work or transfer, and days away from work each independently trigger recordability | Severity and outcome |
| OSHA 1904.5 | Determination of work-relatedness, establishing whether the exposure that caused the injury arose from the work environment | Exposure |
| OSHA 1904.39 | Severe injury reporting to OSHA within the required timeframe where the outcome meets the threshold | Severity and outcome |
| OSHA 1904.29 | Recordkeeping forms and the requirement that each recordable case be entered with the information needed to complete the log | Header |
| WorkSafeBC OHSR Part 4 (MSI requirements) | Risk factors for musculoskeletal injury identified and addressed once a report or diagnosis is received | Exposure |
| WorkSafeBC OHSR Part 3, incident investigation provisions | Investigation proportionate to the actual or potential severity of the injury, with corrective action tracked to completion | Investigation |
| WorkSafeBC OHSR Part 4 (MSI requirements) | Consultation with affected workers on risk factors and controls as part of identifying and correcting MSI risk | The injury |
What it does not cover
- Discomfort report, which belongs to ERG-001 and is raised before any diagnosis exists.
- Task ergonomic assessment, which belongs to ERG-006 and quantifies the exposure this record only summarises.
- Early intervention record, which belongs to ERG-004 and documents the action that should have preceded a confirmed injury.
- The corrective action itself, which belongs in the linked CAPA record and in work instructions, not in this report.
- OSHA 300 log entry, which is a separate recordkeeping obligation this report informs but does not replace.
Global
MSD Injury Report requirements by country
The duty to record and act on a confirmed musculoskeletal injury is grounded in North American regulation for this template; the international standard supplies the management-system framing that both regimes assume but do not spell out.
OSHA 1904 recordkeeping, General Duty Clause
Recordability and reportability are defined tests applied to the outcome, not to the mechanism of injury.
Getting recordable or reportable wrong is independently discoverable on inspection of the OSHA 300 log, regardless of how the case itself was handled.
WorkSafeBC Occupational Health and Safety Regulation, Part 4 musculoskeletal injury requirements
A confirmed or reported MSI obliges an employer to identify the risk factors and act on them for the specific job.
The obligation runs to the task, not just the individual, which is why the form asks whether others are at similar risk.
ISO 45001, hazard identification and hierarchy of controls
A confirmed injury is treated as evidence the hazard identification or control selection process needs review, not only as a case to close.
An assessment that scored the task acceptable before an injury occurred is itself a nonconformance under a certified system.
How to complete it
How to complete a msd injury report, step by step
The template prompts for the injury, the outcome and the exposure. What decides whether the record actually explains anything is how those sections are reasoned through, not whether they are filled in.
Gradual, gradual with sudden worsening, and single event are genuinely different mechanisms and lead to different investigations. Defaulting to a single event because it is easier to write up produces a record that points the wrong way, usually towards an incident rather than towards hours on task and years in role.
Medical treatment received, work restrictions applied and time away from work each feed this decision independently under OSHA's criteria. The determination should be made against those criteria explicitly, not inferred from how serious the injury feels, because the two do not always agree.
Whether a prior assessment existed, whether it identified this risk, and whether controls were in place and used are four different answers that combine into one conclusion: did the programme know, and if it knew, why didn't the exposure change. An injury following a clean assessment is a finding about the assessment, not just about the case.
Where an earlier discomfort report exists, the intervention that followed it needs to be examined honestly. A discomfort report with no recorded intervention, followed by this injury, is the strongest single signal in the whole record that the early-warning stage of the programme is not working.
What auditors find
Most common msd injury report findings
Because this record is only raised once an injury is diagnosed, the document itself almost always exists. The findings concern whether it reasons honestly about mechanism, recordability and prior exposure.
| Finding | Clause | What fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| A cumulative case is recorded against a single event date to match the format of acute injury reporting. | WorkSafeBC OHSR Part 4 (MSI requirements) | Select the onset type that matches the actual history and leave the event date blank where none exists. |
| Recordable or reportable status is not documented, or is inferred rather than determined against the criteria. | OSHA 1904.7 | Record medical treatment, restriction and time-away outcomes, then apply the recording criteria explicitly. |
| An earlier discomfort report exists but no intervention is recorded against it. | WorkSafeBC OHSR Part 4 (MSI requirements) | Link the discomfort report ID and record why no intervention followed, or that one did and failed. |
| A prior task assessment existed and scored the job acceptable, and the gap is not investigated. | ISO 45001 cl.6.1.2 (hazard identification, general reference) | Raise a reassessment of the task and record explicitly whether the method or the input was wrong. |
| Controls are recorded as in place but not being used, with no barrier captured. | WorkSafeBC OHSR Part 4 (MSI requirements) | Record the stated barrier and route it to the action owner rather than closing the case on control presence alone. |
| Other workers doing the same task are not checked once the case is confirmed. | WorkSafeBC OHSR Part 4 (MSI requirements) | Answer whether others are at similar risk and raise the extent-of-condition review where the answer is yes. |
Case in point
Case in point: the assessment that said the job was fine
A boning hall worker was diagnosed with a forearm tendon injury after four years in the same role, six to seven hours a day on the same cutting task. A task assessment of that job existed, was eighteen months old, and had scored the exposure as acceptable with the knife technique and rotation schedule then in place. The injury report recorded a prior assessment existed, linked its ID, and marked that it had identified this risk only partly.
The investigation that followed did not stop at the individual case. It reopened the assessment and found the rotation schedule it had scored was no longer being run; two of the three rotation positions had been merged when a colleague left and never replaced, doubling the hours on the cutting task without anyone updating the record that had judged it safe. The finding was not that the worker or the supervisor had done something wrong on the day, but that an assessment can go stale in exactly the direction that matters most, and nothing in the routine had checked it.
The template
The template, field by field
The form exactly as it installs. Every field, option, score and conditional rule is editable, and the links to other templates come with it.
5 sections
- Reference
- ERG-003
- Archetype
- Record
- Record ID
- CASE-2026-000
- Scoring
- Severity band
- Direction
- High is bad
- Singleton
- No
- Basis
- OSHA 1904, WorkSafeBC
- Links
- Links Case, Job; feeds Task Assessment
- Tags
- MSD, Injury
- Sections
- 5
- Fields
- 58
- Follow up fields
- 5
- Repeating sections
- 0
- Links out
- 10
Header
17 fieldsCase ID*
Auto sequence. Format CASE-2026-00000.
The record's own ID. Other templates point at this value.
Status*
Drives who this goes to next.
- Planned2 pts
- In progress2 pts
- Complete3 pts
- Deferred0 pts
- Open0 pts
- Closed3 pts
- Overdue0 pts
Date and Time*
Completed By*
Site*
Site ID*
Format SITE-000.
Links to FDN-001 Site ID
Area
The area within the site.
Exact Location
Drop a pin for anything hard to find.
Worker*
Person ID*
Format PER-0000.
Links to FDN-003 Person ID
Task*
Job ID*
Format JOB-000.
Links to FDN-004 Job Task ID
Case ID 2
An earlier discomfort report for the same person and region.
Thread key. Every record in this chain carries this value
Parent Type
What kind of record this follows.
Parent ID
The reference of that record.
Immediate predecessor record
Raised Date*
It Built Up Over Time
Most MSD injuries have no single event. Do not force a moment of injury into the record, because that hides the real cause, which is cumulative exposure.
The injury
12 fieldsBody Map
Tap the body region affected. The diagram records left and right separately, because a one sided pattern usually points at the workstation layout.
Body Region*
Side
Second Region
Onset Type*
Gradual over weeks, gradual with a sudden worsening, or a single identifiable event.
Date Symptoms Started
Date Reported*
Delay In Reporting Days*
Reason For Delay
Thought it would pass, did not want to complain, unaware it was reportable, or feared consequences.
Earlier Discomfort Report Exists*
Where one exists, ask why the intervention did not prevent this.
- No1 pt
- Yes0 pts
Discomfort Report ID
Links to ERG-001 Case ID
Intervention Was Made
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
Severity and outcome
6 fieldsMedical Treatment Received*
- None3 pts
- First aid2 pts
- Medical treatment1 pt
- Specialist or surgery0 pts
Work Restrictions Applied*
- None3 pts
- Temporary1 pt
- Ongoing0 pts
Time Away From Work*
- None3 pts
- Under a week2 pts
- Over a week0 pts
Restriction Record ID
Links to HLT-017 Record ID
Case Record ID
Links to HLT-016 Case ID
Recordable Or Reportable*
- Neither3 pts
- Recordable1 pt
- Reportable0 pts
Exposure
9 fieldsYears In This Role
Hours Per Day On This Task*
Rotation In Place*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Prior Assessment Existed*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
Assessment ID
Links to ERG-006 Assessment ID
Assessment Identified This Risk
An assessment that scored the task as acceptable, followed by an injury, means the method or the input was wrong.
- Yes2 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Controls Were In Place*
- Yes2 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Controls Being Used*
- Yes2 pts
- Sometimes1 pt
- No0 pts
Barrier To Using Controls
Investigation
14 fieldsInvestigation Required*
Set by potential outcome, not by what actually happened.
- No3 pts
- Yes0 pts
Investigation Level
RCA ID
Format RCA-2026-00000.
Links to FDN-013 RCA ID
Task Reassessed*
- Yes3 pts
- Scheduled1 pt
- No0 pts
Others At Similar Risk*
- No3 pts
- Yes0 pts
Extent Of Condition ID
Links to FDN-018 Review ID
Action Required*
Raise the action record, then enter its reference here.
- No2 pts
- Yes0 pts
Priority
- High0 pts
- Medium1 pt
- Low3 pts
CAPA ID
Format CAPA-2026-00000.
Links to FDN-014 CAPA ID
Action Owner
Supervisor*
Signature*
Ergonomics*
Second Signature*
ERG-003 · record IDs look like CASE-2026-000 · Links Case, Job; feeds Task Assessment
Open in KnowellaRun it with agents
From a document you fill in to a programme that runs itself
The injury is confirmed and diagnosed by the time this record starts, so the failures that matter are downstream: the reassessment that never happens, the discomfort report that never gets linked, and the other workers on the same task who are never checked.
Links the injury record to the discomfort report and task assessment history for the same worker and task, and flags where a scored-acceptable assessment precedes a confirmed injury.
Carries the medical treatment, restriction and case outcome into the linked restriction and case records without duplicate entry.
Tracks the raised CAPA and RCA to completion and confirms the extent-of-condition check reached everyone doing the same task.
Watches for a discomfort report with no recorded intervention followed by an injury on the same person and task, and raises it before the case is closed.
This template lives in KnowErgo — ergonomics. Task assessment, video posture analysis, rotation and workstation redesign.
Meet KnowErgo→Glossary
MSD Injury Report definitions and key terms
- Recordable
- An injury meeting OSHA's criteria for entry on the log, based on medical treatment, restriction, transfer, days away or other listed outcomes, independent of how it happened.
- Reportable
- An injury meeting the threshold that requires direct notification to the regulator within a set time, a narrower and more urgent category than recordable.
- Onset type
- The pattern by which the disorder developed: gradual over weeks, gradual with a sudden worsening, or a single identifiable event, each implying a different cause.
- Musculoskeletal disorder (MSD)
- An injury or disorder of the muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves or joints caused or aggravated by the work, as distinct from an acute traumatic injury.
- Extent of condition
- The review that checks whether a confirmed problem exists at other locations doing similar work, beyond the specific case being reported.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about msd injury report
When should this record be raised instead of a discomfort report?+
Once a musculoskeletal disorder has been diagnosed and confirmed. Before that point, symptoms are handled through the discomfort report, which exists precisely to capture ambiguity that hasn't resolved into a diagnosis yet.
Does every case need a single injury date?+
No. The form explicitly supports gradual onset without a specific date, and most MSD cases genuinely have none. Inventing a date to fit a format built for acute injuries misrepresents the case.
What if a prior assessment says the task was fine?+
That is a finding in itself, not a contradiction to explain away. Record whether the assessment identified this risk fully, partly or not at all, and route the gap to a reassessment rather than treating the injury as an isolated exception.
Who determines recordable or reportable status?+
Whoever completes the record needs to apply OSHA's criteria to the documented medical treatment, restriction and time-away outcomes. It is a determination against a defined test, not a severity judgement made on instinct.
Why does the form ask about controls being used, not just being in place?+
Because the gap between the two is common and is exactly where the actual exposure lives. A control that exists but isn't used, for a recorded reason, tells the investigation something a simple yes on control presence would hide.
What happens once the case is confirmed?+
The record routes into investigation, checks whether others doing the same task are at similar risk, and links forward to a task assessment or reassessment. The case is not closed on treatment and time away alone.
Keep going
Related templates and programmes
Industries this is written for
Programmes this belongs to
Used together in Ergonomics and MSD Prevention
Discomfort Report
Lets a worker report aches, pain or discomfort early, before it becomes an injury
Body Part Symptom Survey
Maps where in the body workers are experiencing discomfort, across a team or area
Early Intervention Record
Records the actions taken when discomfort is reported, before it becomes an injury
MSD Trend Review
Reviews discomfort reports and MSD injuries across areas and tasks
Task Ergonomic Assessment
Assesses a work task using video, applying the methods you configure such as RULA, REBA or WISHA
Lifting Task Assessment
Assesses a lifting task from video, running the NIOSH lifting equation alongside a whole body posture method
More in MSD Reports
Discomfort Report
Lets a worker report aches, pain or discomfort early, before it becomes an injury
Body Part Symptom Survey
Maps where in the body workers are experiencing discomfort, across a team or area
Early Intervention Record
Records the actions taken when discomfort is reported, before it becomes an injury
MSD Trend Review
Reviews discomfort reports and MSD injuries across areas and tasks
Written and reviewed by
Siddarth Singh
Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Knowella
Certified Safety Professional and industrial and systems engineer with more than a decade inside food supply chain, freight and manufacturing operations. This page was written against the current text of the standards it cites, not against secondary summaries of them.
- Certified Safety Professional (CSP), Board of Certified Safety Professionals
- MBA, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
- MS and BS, The Ohio State University, Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Six Sigma Black Belt
Sources and last review. Reviewed 16 August 2026 against:
- OSHA 1904 — Recording and reporting occupational injuries and illnesses, including 1904.5, 1904.7, 1904.29 and 1904.39
- WorkSafeBC Occupational Health and Safety Regulation, Part 4 (musculoskeletal injury requirements)
- WorkSafeBC Occupational Health and Safety Regulation, Part 3 (incident investigation)
- ISO 45001:2018, clause 6.1.2 (hazard identification, general reference)
This page is general guidance, not legal advice. Confirm requirements with your jurisdiction’s regulator.