Corpus Christi, TX

Employer Health Register

September 28, 2000

Work Loss Data Institute now offers return-to-work guidelines on the Web

Work Loss Data Institute announces the establishment of www.Return-to-Work.com, a new website containing the evidence-based “Best Practice” guidelines from Official Disability Guidelines (ODG), as well as expanded features such as deciles, medical descriptions, and frequency ratings for each diagnosis. Greater search capability and continuous updating of the site make www.Return-to-Work.com an easy-to-use alternative for disability information that remains current throughout the entirety of each annual subscription.

Included on the site are ODG’s “Best Practice” disability duration guidelines.  The guidelines are based on the largest database of experience data available – over 3 million government documented cases – and cover length of disability information on all ICD9 diagnoses.  In order to determine the most accurate number of days out of work, each case is broken down into type of therapy or procedure, type of job, modified work possibilities, severity of case, and any other diagnosis-specific variables (such as dominant or non-dominant arm for carpal tunnel syndrome).  ODG’s 65 member Editorial Advisory Board reviews the guidelines annually.  The Return-to-Work site also includes physical therapy guidelines for applicable diagnoses, indicating a recommended number of PT visits over a recommended period of time.

New for ODG’s 2001 edition, and already in place on the Return-to-Work site, are deciles, descriptions, and frequency indicators.  Return-to-work calendar days by percentiles are represented in easy-to-read tables showing the number of days between the last work day until return-to-work at each percentile, from 10 percent to 100 percent (i.e. 10 percent of people with carpal tunnel syndrome were back at work by the tenth day, 20 percent by the twelfth day, etc).  In order to make this information compatible with claims data, which has a seven-day waiting period, only cases with more than seven days out of work are included.

Medical descriptions on the site make ODG’s ICD9 coded format much more user-friendly.  Brief write-ups for each ICD9 describe the injury or illness including symptoms, and indicate other common names for the diagnosis.  The addition of other names and symptoms greatly enhances the site’s search function and makes it easy for an individual to find a diagnosis despite little or no medical background.  For those who are concerned with official coding and classification, all of the text and ICD-9-CM coding from the World Health Organization has been kept.

The final aspect of www.Return-to-Work.com that sets the site apart from other disability duration guidelines is the new frequency indicator.  Represented in the form of a percentile, this number allows for quick identification of the most common illnesses and injuries.  For each diagnosis the indicator shows what percentage of lost work days are represented by that ICD9.  When applicable, the indicator also shows what percentage of occupational lost work days that diagnosis represents.  For example, carpal tunnel syndrome accounts for 0.21 percent of total lost work days and 7.55 percent of occupational lost work days.