This program can help patients:

• Decrease pain
• Improve muscle function
• Recover daily living skills
• Improve independence
• Return to work

Occupational therapy sessions benefit patients with:

• Work-related discomfort or injuries
• Impaired motor, sensory, cognitive or physical skills

At St. Luke’s, our patients’ health and safety is our primary goal – especially as they transition back into their community. Our team uses the Functional Capacity Exam (FCE) to determine a patient’s ability to safely perform work activities after an illness or injury.

In addition to the physical performance assessment, we evaluate the patient’s ability to handle the cognitive demands of the job. Based on our findings, practitioners may recommend modifying the current employment environment, including tasks, techniques or equipment, or finding a new work opportunity that the patient can perform safely.

Functional capacity evaluations are beneficial to patients who:

• Have been injured on the job
• Are applying for Social Security Disability benefits
• Are seeking to return to work or activities following injury or illness
• Have had a catastrophic accident
• Are seeking vocational rehabilitation services
• Are receiving transitional services from school to work

This exam can help patients achieve:

• Increased quality of life
• Enhanced work performance
• Improved safety in work environment
• Ability to meet job demands
• Modified tasks or work environment

The Progressive Goal Attainment Program (PGAP™) is a 10-week, evidence-based treatment program designed to identify and treat the psychological risk factors contributing to an individual’s disability.

Appropriate patients include injured workers struggling with musculoskeletal conditions, depression and other debilitating conditions that are preventing them from participating in the return-to-work process.

• Reduce psychological barriers interfering with rehabilitation
• Promote re-integration into life-role activities
• Increase quality of life
• Facilitate return to work

• Develop a structured activity schedule
• Graded activity involvement
• Motivational enhancement
• Resumption of daily activities that have been adversely impacted
• Promote resumption of family, social and occupational roles
• Re-integration into the workplace

Our therapists are highly trained and hold additional specialized certifications to help patients recover from injury and assist in the return-to-work process. All are licensed and registered by Washington State.

St. Luke’s is committed to helping people return to work quickly and safely. Through our comprehensive industrial rehabilitation program incorporating work conditioning and work hardening, we partner with patients at any stage of their injury to provide personalized and customized services throughout the return-to-work process.

St. Luke’s Work Hardening Program takes conditioning to the next level. Through the course of this treatment, our therapists work with patients in daily 4-hour sessions, incrementally adding hours until patients can perform functional tasks equivalent to an 8-hour workday. Through supervised work sessions that incorporate similar equipment to the jobsite and other functional aspects of the job, we help injured patients through the “return-to-work” process every step of the way. Although work simulation is key to the therapy, we also include elements of strength and conditioning to enhance our patients’ success.

Patients who undergo work conditioning can achieve:

• Increased core strength
• Increased jobsite functionality
• Increased endurance
• Ability to return to work faster
• Decreased pain
• Reduced risk of re-injury

Additionally, work hardening can help patients experience:

• Increased independence
• Increased ability to perform work related tasks over the workday

Helping patients heal

Work conditioning and work hardening are helpful for patients with:

• Work-related injuries
• Prolonged absence from work due to injury