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Work Hardening

Helping Employees Return To Work

After an injury, helping an employee return to work in full capacity is beneficial for both the worker and the employer. That’s where work hardening and work conditioning come in. Both are forms of therapeutic interventions that help the employee regain enough function to return to work. They make use of real or simulated tasks to prepare the employee for a safe transition back into the workforce.

The Work Conditioning/Hardening Program at PT Solutions is designed to comprehensively rehabilitate an injured employee to a physical level that allows for a full duty return to work. Our approach provides a team effort involving the treating physician, employer, and insurance representative to return the worker to productive employment in a cost-effective and efficient manner.

Work Hardening

What To Expect

Under the direction of certified physical and occupational therapists, the employee will be asked to simulate job-specific duties in the clinic. As with most of our programs, the work conditioning and hardening is a goal-oriented plan and includes:

  • Highly structured, goal-oriented, and individualized treatment designed to promote a complete and cost-effective recovery
  • Real or work-simulated activities to restore physical, behavioral, and vocational functions
  • Treatment sessions are designed to restore an individual’s strength, endurance, flexibility, coordination, and cardiopulmonary functions in order to return to work
  • 3-6 hours per treatment session, 5 days per week, until the employee reaches full duty return-to-work or maximum medical improvement
  • Weekly communication with all stakeholders to assure the employee is progressing as needed