Rehabilitation for the injured worker

Worker Rehabilitation is a specialized field of rehabilitation that focuses on treating patients with work-related injuries. Rehabilitation professionals have treated injured workers for decades. In recent years, however, there has been an increase in the involvement and focus of the clinical management of injured workers. Rehabilitation professionals are now, closely involved with the clinical management of the injured worker from the acute stage in the rehabilitation process through return to work. This involvement in specialized return to work programs and the determination of the readiness of return to work has created a niche to effectively and safely assist in the return of an injured worker to gainful employment.

The primary goal of worker rehabilitation is to return an injured worker back to the workplace to his, or her, original position or to an alternative position with appropriate restrictions. The majority of patients will promptly return to work following injury and rehabilitation. In Idaho, there are typically two return to work programs that specialize in the treatment of injured workers, Functional Capacity Evaluations and Work Conditioning.

Functional Capacity Evaluations (FCEs) are objective, work-specific tests performed on injured workers when the worker has not been able to successfully return to work. The objective of an FCE is to collect data regarding the level of participation, the functional limitations, work-specific abilities and to evaluate safe working capacities to determine the return to work readiness.

The objective of a work conditioning program is to prepare an injured worker for his or her return to work or job retraining. These programs provide goal-directed, work-specific treatment plan that prepares the individual to meet the physical and functional demands required to return to work.

Pinnacle Physical Therapy specializes in the treatment of injured workers. We offer an entire staff trained in the most up to date work conditioning and functional capacity examination techniques. We know that getting a injured employee back to work as soon as possible is a priority, therefore we schedule injured workers in within 24-48 hours! Call today to schedule an appointment - (208) 777-4242.