Ever wonder if the work comp patient that you’re discharging is really capable of returning to work? Does he/she have the physical abilities to do the job?
Or have you ever felt the physician was holding the patient out of work too long or sending them back to early?
Champion your industrial athletes!
Industrial athletes are often seen as the underdog of the PT world.
The work comp system can be confusing and frustrating to deal with – if you don’t fully understand how it works. The stakeholders and processes are different than for patients insured with private insurance, Medicare or Medicaid.
After you wrap up your outpatient therapy, does the patient still have MD restrictions that prevent return to work? Maybe you’re at a loss for what to do next because the patient’s gained full range and normal strength.
What can you uncover with functional awareness?
Have you ever disagreed with a return to work decision on one of your workers' compensation patients but felt powerless to influence the decision? What if you had done a Return-to-Work (RTW) screen or mini-FCE as part of your standard discharge evaluation? Could that have made a difference?
Sink or Swim Just as the Great Depression hit businesses hard, the “Great Pandemic” is shaping up to be a sink or swim period for many companies. Most physical therapy clinics have taken quite a hit during the COVID19 shutdowns and restrictions. As more and more clinics share their stories with us, we are seeing a trend emerge. About 20% of clinics are already swimming and bouncing back. Another 20% are sinking. They have chosen to stick their head in the sand, waiting for the problem to go away. Still the majority, about 60% of clinics, are just stuck. They want to find a solution and get business back on track, but they just don’t know what to do. These clinics are treading water, barely keeping their heads up, looking for a lifeline. Where does your clinic fall?
How is the typical return to work decision made? You probably know the drill. The patient returns to the physician and the physician says: “So, do you think you’re ready to go back to work?” And the patient’s response drives the physician decision. Or the physician takes a look at the patient’s MRI or lab work and says, “Well it looks like you’re ready to get on back to work.” Either way, the end result is a WAG. If you’re not sure what a WAG stands for, let’s just say the first word is Wild and the third word is Guess and I’ll leave the middle word up to your imagination…
When doing Functional Capacity Evaluations (FCE) or Pre-Hire Physical Abilities Testing (PAT) some clinicians and FCE vendors pull a bit of a testing protocol from here and a bit of another from there, slap it together and call it a defensible, functional test. While that might help get the job done, it won’t be anything close to defensible – unless you’re talking about the martial arts maneuvers that you, the physician, insurance carrier or employer will be doing - when the test is legally challenged.
If you’re not familiar with the world of pre-hire testing, it may seem a bit surreal…You may feel like you’re traveling through another dimension with your next stop, the PAT Zone!
Providing pre-hire Physical Ability Testing (PAT) helps both employees and employers, while generating cash-based revenue for your clinic. But developing and implementing these tests can be a bit daunting unless you have the right tools and training.
