Work Conditioning & Functional Capacity Evaluations

Blue Ridge Physical Therapy offers both Work Conditioning and Functional Capacity Evaluations.

Work conditioning is an individualized, work oriented program designed to restore a patient's strength, endurance, movement and flexibility. The objective of the Work Conditioning program is to restore the patient's function to enable a safe return to work. Work Conditioning provides a transition between acute care and return to work while addressing motivation, safety, and physical tolerances as well as worker behaviors. Conditioning tasks are graded to advance the biomechanical, neuromuscular, cardiovascular/metabolic and psychological function of the patient in conjunction with participating in structured and graded job simulation or actual work tasks.

Functional Capacity Evaluation is a detailed test that objectively measures the patient's current level of function. A FCE includes appropriate components of a neuromusculoskeletal examination, measurements of physical impairment, patient behavior, work related activities, and the functional abilities of the patient. The measurements of function from the FCE are compared to the physical demands to the job or other activities of daily living, and are used to make proper return to work/activity decisions, or to generate a rehabilitation plan. The FCE is designed to evaluate the individual patient's ability to perform specific, work related activities.