Functional capacity evaluation–military: Program description and case series

Abstract

A functional capacity evaluation (FCE) evaluates the ability of an individual to perform activities related to employment. There is no FCE specific to the military population; therefore, a FCE for the military population (FCE-M) was developed to evaluate an injured service member’s (SM) ability to return to duty. The FCE-M is herein described along with descriptions of three active duty SMs who completed the evaluation. The three SMs completed all categories of the FCE-M with the first two cases achieving a work-level classification of Heavy-Very Heavy and the third a classification of Medium-Heavy. The FCE-M provides a systematic assessment of performance of highly specified military tasks and may provide value in assessing readiness for returning to duty.