Title: Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE)
Headings: Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE)
9 Articles in Volume 10, Issue #4
Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE)
Selecting The Appropriate Test
FCEs Current Scope
Measurement Properties of the FCE
Responsiveness and Reliability of the FCE
Impairment/Disability Testing
Conclusion

Content: The FCE has become, arguably, more functional and less reliant on expensive technology—e.g., utilizing boxes for lifting/carrying tasks and sleds for push/pull tasks. Only relatively few facilities are able to offer the more sophisticated dynamometric testing for PCE data, such as might have been the norm in the past. The lingering questions remain, however, as to whether the FCE is an accurate representation of a person’s ability to perform physical work. Are the results of the FCE reproducible (consistent)? Does it measure what it purports to measure (validity)? Is the FCE sensitive enough to measuring functionally-important changes that might translate into a higher probability of a patient returning to work? And finally, are the results of the FCE-WCE predictive of the primary outcome of interest, namely, the return to work? The results of these assessments have implications for employment, compensability determinations, further medical/rehabilitative efforts, disability evaluations, and indemnity/cash benefits. 7
The number of FCE vendors has risen noticeably over the last 15 years, and this form of testing is often used in combination with work conditioning and work hardening (job simulation) programs aimed at returning injured workers back to their respective workplaces.