Guides

Hearing conservation

Track audiometric baselines and annual audiograms, flag standard threshold shifts and recordable hearing loss, and chase overdue annual tests.

This module runs the audiometric side of an OSHA 1910.95(g) hearing-conservation program. It holds each enrolled employee's baseline audiogram, compares annual tests to it, and flags a standard threshold shift (STS) — and when that shift reaches a recordable level.

Enroll an employee

  1. Go to Hearing conservation and use the Enroll an employee (with baseline audiogram) row at the bottom.
  2. Pick the site and the employee from your roster, and enter the job title.
  3. Record the baseline audiogram — hearing levels at 2000, 3000, and 4000 Hz for the left and right ear.
  4. Optionally tick Age-correct STS (App. F) to subtract the presbycusis (aging) allowance before an STS is determined (1910.95(g)(10)(i)). It reveals a date of birth field and a table selector — Male (F-1), Female (F-2), or Unspecified (the conservative default). The allowance is subtracted from the measured shift only; it never moves the 25 dB recordable floor. An age-corrected subject carries an age-corr. badge in the Status column.
  5. Click Enroll. The employee appears with a baseline only status until an annual is recorded.

Record annual tests

  1. On an employee's row, click Annual. Set the test date (it defaults to today — backdate it to when the test was actually done) and enter this year's 2k/3k/4k readings for each ear.
  2. Leave Work-related ticked (the default) unless a physician or audiologist has determined the loss is not work-related (1904.10(b)(6)) — unchecking it records the audiogram without opening a 300-log case. Click Save audiogram.
  3. The system computes each ear's average shift from baseline and sets the status.
  4. An STS badge (yellow row) means an average change of 10 dB or more at 2/3/4 kHz in either ear; a recordable badge (red row) means the shift also reaches a 25 dB total hearing level and is an OSHA-recordable hearing loss (1904.10).

When a work-related annual audiogram is recordable, the module automatically opens an OSHA 300-log case — a hearing-loss case in column M(5), not a privacy case — with one case per subject. The row's 300 log column links straight to that incident case.

Revise a baseline

After a persistent STS, or when hearing has significantly improved, click Revise baseline on the row to substitute the latest annual audiogram for the baseline going forward (1910.95(g)(9)).

Follow up on a shift

When an employee shows an STS, click CAPA on the row to open a hearing-conservation follow-up (retest, refit, or work-up). Once raised, the row links to that CAPA.

Export the register

Export STS summary CSV downloads the audiogram / STS summary from api/hearing/audiograms.csv. Unlike the de-identified bloodborne sharps log, this record is employee-identified — it's a requestable record under 1910.95(m)(2).

What happens automatically

  • The next annual audiogram falls due one year after the employee's latest test (or the baseline, if no annual yet). An employee whose annual audiogram is overdue escalates by notification, so nobody silently drops out of the program.
  • A confirmed STS escalates for the 1910.95(g)(8) follow-up (refit protectors, retrain, consider referral); a recordable hearing loss escalates on its own ("Recordable hearing loss: (name)") so the 300-log entry and follow-up get done. A recordable loss subsumes its STS — one item each.

Tip: filter by Site to review one location's audiometric results at a time. Who belongs in the program comes from your noise dosimetry results — 85 dBA TWA and above; the auto-opened 300-log case then flows through recordkeeping.

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