How to fail a functional capacity evaluation
What NOT to do during your FCE! (Functional Capacity Evaluations)
Timecodes:
hey everybody it's luke gordon physical
therapist here and i wanted to make one
more video about fces
or functional capacity evaluations just
to clear up a few more thoughts that i
had
so up until this point i've done two
videos on fce so far the first video is
just what an fce
is the second video had five of the most
frequently asked questions
which covers quite a bit of ground i
think the second video was really good
about
answering any of those questions that
might be creeping into your mind if
you're scheduled for an fce
and then in today's third and probably
my final video in fces
i just wanted to talk about some of the
things that you should make sure you
don't do during the fce just to give
yourself a good shot at having
kind of like what i would consider a
clean test result or something pretty
usable for your workers comp claim
so i'm going to go through those things
i've got three things that i think you
should avoid
and then i've got two things i want you
to consider as well uh
in terms of getting the best outcome
possible so i'm gonna dive into those in
just a minute
but first off hopefully if you're
watching the video you already know what
an fce kind of is i would say go back
and watch the other videos if you don't
and uh more than likely if you're
watching the video you're in the middle
of a worker's comp claim
so you've been injured at work and now
you're trying to figure out what you can
do
safely in terms of a regular consistent
day of work
you know an 8 hour day 10 hour day 40
hour week
so that's the basis or the underground
the background of an fce
to begin with is that you've probably
been off work for a while and people
like your claims manager and your
employer
people like that your doctor potentially
they want to know
what you can and cannot do on a
consistent basis
so in video one and two a little bit i
talked about those specific tasks
they're going to test you on i'm not
going to huge detail now
but they want to know can you sit stand
and walk for prolonged periods
can you lift this much weight from this
height to that height can you carry
can you use your hands can you go up and
down stairs or ladders
so they're trying to figure all this
stuff out and what you want
with your fce is you want the report to
come back pretty nice from your fce
examiner
examiner whether it's a pt or an ot that
says that you know you gave good effort
that you gave consistent effort and that
your results are valid
so that's kind of what we're driving at
with this video is that with that in
mind
there are some things you want to avoid
doing that are going to make your report
a little more murky
so that people like your claims manager
or your employer especially if you don't
have a good relationship with your
employer um that you want to avoid some
things that are going to make you
seem a little less reliable i guess
that's the nice way to put it
uh the more the less sugar-coated way is
you don't want to look like a liar
i mean essentially you don't want to be
labeled as like a malinger which is kind
of a workers comp
term you don't want people to think oh
well you're just faking your injury and
you really can go back to work
so the point of this video then is going
to be what are some of those things that
you want to avoid
just to uh you know appear that you're
giving good effort
um which hopefully you are um but it's
confusing too to do an fce sometimes
because you don't know
what's good effort and what's not effort
and what's considered normal what's not
considered normal
and then sometimes you walk into the
room when you're you know you meet your
fce
uh evaluator and you don't get a good
vibe right off the bat you know you're
like oh this guy is grumpy or this gal
doesn't like me
or this person is paid for by um
you know the workers comp system so it's
important that you just do everything
that you can
to give yourself a good shot at a
successful test so
i know it's kind of a long-winded intro
and i'm gonna get into those key points
i promise
but that's that's where i'm coming from
is to help you understand those things
and hopefully to help you move along
smoothly throughout your claim
without so much hassle and headache and
stress and worry and things like that
which of course don't help anybody
anyways so there you go so let's talk
about what not to do then
um the first thing i'm going to throw
out there because i think it's important
to say again i did say in video 2
but you don't want to skip your pain
meds typically
so a lot of people who are have chronic
pain or they've been
off work for several years you're on a
consistent pain management program
and unless you've talked to your doctor
about it i would not recommend skipping
your pain medications now obviously i'm
just a guy on a video
so you can't take my recommendations too
far but what i would encourage you to do
then
is if you have questions about that talk
to your doctor
well in advance of your fce because you
know it can take a while for your doctor
to get back to you
but more than likely if you're on a
consistent pain management program
they're going to want you to stay
consistent with that the only exception
i think to that would be
is that if to return to work if you
can't be on any of the pain meds they
might want you to skip it
but again clarify that at least a week
or two before your fce
so that you don't go into your fce
skipping your pain medications or your
neurologic medications
uh not neurologic but like nerve pain
medications like lyra or gabapentin
something like that you don't want to go
in there and just feel
exact i mean completely horrible um
unless of course that's what your doctor
recommends so thing number one not to do
don't skip your pain meds unless you've
talked to your doctor about it and
that's the actual plan
the second thing is probably the biggest
thing that you're going to take away
from this video
is that one of the things that makes
fces murky for the evaluator
and which will show up on your report in
a really negative way
is if they feel like you are
exaggerating your pain behaviors
you're just not putting forth very good
effort
so that first thing is really important
pretty much everyone in fce is going to
have pain
whether it's back pain leg pain arm pain
shoulder pain
whatever your injury is or other medical
conditions you're dealing with at the
same time
you're gonna have pain but exaggerating
the pain to make sure your examiner
sees it or really over communicating the
pain and really being hyper focused on
the pain
typically will not work in your favor it
will work against you
because your evaluator is going to get
the impression that
you're just not putting forth any effort
because you have pain now
that being said pain is a really tricky
thing to interpret
it's very individual it's very
subjective it's very
dependent on you as a person but
the way that your evaluator i guess
assesses your pain is
is kind of what's important during your
tests too so again i think it's very
important to be honest with your
assessor talking about the types of pain
you have
hopefully you get a good impression of
them that they're putting together your
medical history and asking you good
questions
so that they can start to kind of match
up your diagnosis and your treatments
and what's going on with you to what
they would consider
a normal level of pain so again it's
really hard for me to explain it better
than that
but don't go out of your way to over
exaggerate or overexpress your pain
because it won't help you
the second thing that i kind of
mentioned on that is what they're really
looking for
is consistent effort from you ever that
would match up with your medical
diagnosis and your reports of pain
so just because you have pain i would
encourage you
communicate it to your evaluator again
it could be a pt or an
ot but also give the best effort you can
within reason again that's a little bit
murky
not the clearest way to say something
but just try to work with the evaluator
and show them what you can and can't do
on the tail end of that though of course
because this is a confusing topic
is you really don't want to work too
hard either
because you can push through there's
i've had people that can push really
hard
for one day but then they're wrecked for
the next seven days
to two weeks so you really don't want to
do that either so it's really a fine
line
between working within a reasonable
level
tolerating some level of pain making
sure your evaluator knows that you're in
pain but you're still giving good effort
and then not overdoing it and then
showing
people you know showing the evaluator
that maybe you can do a lot more
because ultimately again we're trying to
figure out what you can do on a
consistent
regular day in and day out week in and
week out basis
and if you just go all hardcore one day
knowing that you're going to feel like
crap for the next two weeks
that won't do you any good either so
again on the tail end of that
consistent performance is what you know
your evaluator is looking for they want
to get a good impression of what you can
do for a longer period of time so just
try to work within those parameters
um and then one last recommendation i
might make
or two actually i said to the beginning
of the video sometimes we'll stick with
that but the first one is
um i don't think it's a bad idea to
request a two-day
fce if it's an option when i was doing
fces which i don't do them anymore
um but i'm still very familiar with how
they go since i did
hundreds if not thousands of them but i
did i had the option for a one day
versus a two day
i preferred the one day as the evaluator
but definitely the two day
uh worked in in the the client's
advantage at some point especially if
you're worried about your pain level
jumping if they force you to do too much
that first day
so if it's an option request a two-day
evaluation
um and you know just to see if that's
if that's okay with the evaluator
because then they can test and re-test
you
and get a better idea of if they push
you well if they pushed you too hard
that first day
so that's my first one the second one
too i'm sure any therapists watching
this video if there's any therapists
watching the video won't like this one
but if you feel like you're in a
position where you're going to an fce
evaluator
you've heard bad things
you're you really think that you're in
an unfair position i would encourage you
to reach out to an attorney who
specializes in workers comp
uh again i've worked with a lot of good
attorneys who are just giving their
clients good solid advice
in my opinion they weren't trying to
work the system or scam the system or
anything like that
or teach you how to just you know live
on a pinch in the rest of your life
although it does happen sometimes
but um you know reach out to an attorney
and say hey can i talk to you about the
case what do you think of this what do
you think of that
because sometimes they can be a really
valuable asset to your claim and they
can help you
um you know go through the claim and
navigate it
on the other side of the coin too is if
you had an fce and you feel like they
really
kind of threw you under the bus with the
report and now you don't like the
direction your claim is heading
i don't think it's a bad idea to talk to
an attorney at that point either
just make sure they know workers comp
really well as it does kind of vary from
state to state
so again i'm sure the therapist won't
appreciate that advice but i i advise
clients on that on a regular basis if
you don't like the way you're being
treated
talk to an attorney um you know workers
comp
that can be a really magical word uh you
know i'm about to talk to my attorney so
anyhow uh do your best hopefully that
helps you any questions i've got those
three videos i'll link it
towards the end here on a playlist uh
something fancy like that
and then as always just leave a comment
or a question below if there's anything
i can help you with
share some experiences or something like
that and i'll get back to my normal
youtube videos here soon talking about
different types of pain relief and
and stretches and all that good stuff
but uh thank you for watching hope
you're doing well please leave me a
comment
and like and subscribe thank you bye
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