How many stamps should there be on a sick leave certificate from a medical institution?

Stamp on sick leave: round or triangular?

The type of seal on a particular document - round or triangular - is established by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.

Most medical institutions have both round and triangular seals. And yet, more often than not, the certificate of incapacity for work is confirmed with a triangular stamp, along the inner contour of which there is the inscription “for sick leave”, and the name of the medical institution is also present on the stamp.

If the sheet is certified by organizations of a specific nature (drug dispensary, mental hospital), then in this case the name of the institution may not be on the seal (triangular in shape), only the inscription “for sick leave” is sufficient.

Situations are possible when the sheet also contains a round stamp. But this only happens in cases where the patient went to a hospital other than his place of residence/registration or if some additional information is required for a certificate of incapacity for work.

Rules for making impressions

This information is necessary for doctors and also useful for employers and employees.
For doctors in clinics and hospitals, knowledge of these rules will help them draw up a document on temporary disability in accordance with existing requirements. Such information will make it possible for the employer and employee to immediately understand whether the document is filled out correctly.

Many people are accustomed to the fact that the stamps on sick leave certificates are placed crookedly, and the inscriptions on them are difficult to make out. Today, the requirements for the design of ballots have become more stringent. This is due to the country’s government’s desire to minimize cases of forgery of sick leave certificates.

Not only representatives of medical institutions, but also managers, personnel officers of enterprises, and patients of clinics should know the rules for making impressions. This will help to detect shortcomings in time and take the necessary measures to correct them.

The rules for placing stamps are given below:

• it is necessary to place them in specially designated places;
• they must be placed evenly;
• it is important that their contours are clear;
• they should not extend beyond the edges of the form;
• it is important that they contain the phrase “for sick leave certificates” or “for sick leave certificates”;
• the text should be easy to read. Smearing and fuzziness are unacceptable. It is important that each letter on the print is easily visible;
• they must fit into the field that is intended for them. It is unacceptable to touch adjacent cells. This will interfere with reading nearby text.

A correctly made seal will make it possible to identify the medical institution that issued the sick leave.

If a doctor at a clinic or medical center made a poor-quality impression on the disability certificate, the Social Insurance Fund has the right to refuse to accept such a document for work.

General requirements for stamps on sick leave

Printing a certificate of incapacity for work must meet the following requirements (according to the Ministry of Health):

• the seal imprint is located strictly in the lower and upper right corner;
• retreat beyond the designated area is permitted;
• the printing stamp must have clear, even contours with clearly visible names;
• The seal should not overlap the columns of the information form.

Common Mistakes

Now we should consider the main mistakes that are most often made when preparing a document. If they are not corrected, the sick leave may not be paid.

What if it is placed incorrectly?

If the stamp is placed in a different part of the form, this may be considered a gross error. And then the form must be replaced.

So it is best to put stamps in strictly indicated places without any deviations.

If it is not readable or blurry

In this situation, the employee simply needs to contact the medical organization where he previously received this sick leave. There he is required to replace the document with a duplicate one.

This error in itself is considered gross. It is by using the seals indicated by the medical organization that the employer can verify the authenticity of this sick leave certificate.

If for some reason beyond your control you are not given a duplicate sick leave certificate, then you will not have to count on monetary compensation or other payments.

If the seal of a medical organization cannot be read, it falls on a part that is filled out and complicates the recognition of information, then such a sick leave certificate is considered damaged and must be replaced.

If it goes beyond (touches the cell)

One of the most common mistakes is the print protruding beyond the drawn line. Do I need to redo such a sheet or is there a way to fix it?

It all depends on whether the print fits into the fields to be filled in or not.

If not, then everything is fine and nothing needs to be done. If the seal still gets on the part to be filled out, but does not make it difficult to read the information contained in this field, then the sheet does not need to be replaced.

If you put the wrong one

There are no official regulations on this sensitive issue. But, based on Order of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation No. 624n, you can proceed as follows: carefully cross out the incorrect seal, then on the back side put an imprint of the correct seal, make a signature that confirms that this seal is correct - “believe the corrected one.”

It is important to remember that the total number of permissible errors on a sick leave certificate should not exceed two!

And it doesn’t matter who made the mistake - the employer or the doctor.

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Sick leave

How many stamps should there be?

The form has three places for three stamps, which the medical institution uses to confirm the authenticity of the document. Read more about how to determine the authenticity of a sick leave certificate.

The first seal is placed at the top of the form. It serves as confirmation of the authenticity and correctness of the information specified in all completed fields. These columns indicate the patient’s details and the reason for his request.

The second seal is placed at the end of sick leave. The place for setting it is located in the column that indicates when the employee can return to perform his duties.

There may not be a third seal. It is placed only if the patient has been referred for a medical examination.

This is what a certificate of incapacity for work looks like with all the necessary stamps:

It is mandatory to have 2 stamps on the sick leave certificate.

Rules for issuing a certificate of incapacity for work

But let's start not with stamps, but with how the document is drawn up as a whole. There are certain rules that must be followed, otherwise it may not be accepted even if all the seals are in place. The basic requirements are as follows:

• Absence of blots in the text - because of them, the scanner may not read the information.
• Letters must be placed within the cells allocated for them.
• The text is entered either by machine or by hand, but in the second case in printed capital letters.
• If the document is filled out manually, only black ink must be used.
• If the doctor makes a mistake while filling out the form, the mistake is not corrected - instead, a new one is issued.
• If a copy is required, you will need to mark “duplicate”.

But in the part that is filled out by the employer, correction of an error is allowed - it must be crossed out with one line, and the correct data is indicated on the back of the document with a note indicating which line the error to be corrected is on, certified by a seal and signature. This is also supplemented by the entry “corrected believe.” There can be no more than two such corrections, otherwise the document will need to be replaced.

After the certificate of incapacity for work is received, it must be handed over by the employee to the employer, and he will then complete its completion. It is worth noting that in addition to the black color, it is prescribed to fill out the document with either a gel pen, a fountain pen, or a capillary pen, but not a ballpoint pen. This is not so critical, but it is advisable to comply with this requirement.

Electronic sick notes are becoming more and more widespread, significantly simplifying the procedure. However, they are not yet practiced everywhere, and not all employers have the opportunity to work with them, but soon we can expect a complete replacement of paper forms with them, which will make the whole procedure much faster and more convenient.

Possible violations

There are often cases when sick leave is not accepted due to its incorrect execution. The reason may also be errors with seals.

1. A sick leave certificate is invalid if it has only one stamp.
2. The sheet will not be accepted if it is certified with outdated or inappropriate seals for a particular medical institution.
3. If the name of the institution is printed on the seal, which does not correspond to the actual name, then the seal is invalid.

The stamp must contain the cliche “for sick leave”; if it is absent, the form is considered invalid.

Common reasons why sick leave is not accepted at work

If the form is missing at least one of the required stamps, the sick leave is invalid. Critical errors when filling out the form are considered:

• incorrect information about the patient (mistakes in writing initials, gender, year of birth), medical institution (incorrect name, address, etc.);
• incorrect writing of the date of onset of illness and recovery (for example, the past year is written at the beginning of the new year);
• lack of signature or seal of the attending physician or his initials;
• incorrect disease code.

An incorrectly filled out certificate of incapacity for work is considered a violation in registration. To avoid it, you need to follow the rules for filling out the form and applying stamps.

In the situations described, the certificate of incapacity for work should be rewritten and corrections made, since in its original form, with such inaccuracies and incorrect registration, it may not be accepted for calculating social benefits.

Employer's stamp on the disability form - is it necessary and in what cases?

As for the marks on the sheet from the manager, they are filled in at the bottom of it and are located after the main information. It is not necessary to have a seal from the employer; just his signature is sufficient. However, some organizations have special stamps for sick leave. In this case, in addition to the employer’s signature, a stamp is also affixed.

After carefully checking the completed fields, the employer submits the sheet to the Social Insurance Fund so that the employee receives material payments to compensate for his temporary incapacity.

The certificate of incapacity for work must contain at least two triangular stamps. Stamp impressions must be clear and placed in their proper places. The employer's stamp on the sick leave form is not a requirement.

How to make corrections to sick leave

Amendments to sick leave can only be made by the employer. Moreover, it is not allowed to make more than 2 corrections. This rule applies to both the employer and employees of the accounting department, human resources department and other responsible persons. By law, doctors do not have the right to correct anything on the form; the attending physician can only write out a duplicate of the sick leave.

Example 1. Sick leave that does not meet the requirements of the Ministry of Health and Social Development

E. B. Lisitseva, upon returning to work, submitted sick leave to the accounting department for the calculation of social benefits. Ink was spilled on the form, causing the doctor's stamp to become blurry and unreadable. Such sick leave will not be accepted; it must be redone and given in exchange for the damaged one.