Functional Capacity Evaluations
at Merrifield

Our Physical and Occupational Therapists are trained to perform functional capacity evaluations (FCEs) to assist employers, physicians, or insurance companies in determining an individual’s functional abilities and limitations in the context of a safe environment while focusing on productive work tasks.

The service we provide is a valuable tool in assessing an employee’s safe working abilities and/or establishing baseline abilities for disability evaluations. Our FCE correlates an employee’s functional abilities to the essential physical demands of their job to determine whether they meet these physical demands.

Consistency of effort and reliability of pain ratings are important elements of our evaluation, which is why over 70 separate criteria throughout the FCE help determine if an employee is putting forth consistent effort and whether their subjective pain ratings are reliable.

Additionally, the Functional Capacity Evaluation testing method we use has consistently stood up in a court of law with reliability and validity research to support the testing method.

An FCE consists of a detailed physical exam that includes a variety of functional capacity tests for employee recoveries, such as strength, range or motion, and sensory-motor testing, review of pertinent medical history, evaluation of endurance to specific work tasks, and more.

FCE for workers’ comp are common and the FCE exam results are communicated to both the physician and employer for consideration of the employee’s work responsibilities and to determine the best prognosis with recommendations of additional service if needed.

A functional capacity evaluation is also beneficial to attorneys, case managers, and vocation consultants by offering information for rulings of claims in short/long term disability and other disputes.