Fit for duty and post offer.
Mon, 02/14/2011 - 4:18pm
My hospital system has been approached by one of our clents to develop a physical performance test for "fit to duty evaluation" for the returning employees after work and/or personal injury/illness. I plan to perform a detailed job analysis, develop a test protocol, validate the test and run it in the same way as I would run a post offer test. Only thing different is, it will not be run at post offer but after post injury state. As this testy would not be designed to measure ability or diability for placement purpose, so it won't be as detailed as an FCE. The purpose is to see if the employee is able to meet the physical demands required to fulfill the essential job functions.
My thought is, in principle it should not be very much different from regular post-offer. Please let me know if I am missing anything. If done right as a thorough post -offer, can it be legally defensible.
I would highly appreciate a reply.
Thanks
Fri, 02/18/2011 - 12:22pm
#1
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Thanks for the reply
We are
Thanks for the reply
We are scheduled to see the companies representative and that sure would be one thing we would like to know , what are they going to do once they receive the report from mer saying " the person did not meet the all physical criteria and, therefore, does not meet the essential job demands for the position of xyz.
I think for work injury people who are being followed by our providers, it would be fairly simple. They might go the route of either 1) extending PT or OT. 2) Inititing work hardening program, 3) Order FCE's, 4) Specialist ( read Physiatrist) referral.
I am not sure how it would play with non injury cases involving primary care physicians. As primary care physicians are not familiar with the options, they have with return to work scenarios. The employer might have to work more closely with PCP's.
As far as my part is concerned I plan to verbally tell the companies representative, they can't fire some one legally without following a due process just because they did not pass the test.
Please let me know if you have anyother suggestions.
Fri, 02/18/2011 - 1:39am
#2
I think that setting up a
I think that setting up a test as you describe would be very appropriate-the only additional question would be what to do/recommend if the returning worker does not meet the requirements of the job? Is the employer ready to deal with this question?