Perspectives from Employers, Insurers, Lawyers and Healthcare Providers on Factors that Influence Workers’ Return-to-Work Following Surgery for Non-Traumatic Upper Extremity Conditions

Abstract

The factors stakeholders rated as having the greatest influence on RTW were predominately psychosocial and modifiable. These variables should be the focus of future research to determine prognostic factors for RTW for workers with upper extremity conditions, and to develop effective RTW interventions.

Health-care providers' perspectives on factors influencing return-to-work after surgery for nontraumatic conditions of the upper extremity

“…This article outlines the findings of HCPs from a large cross-sectional study that also determined perspectives on RTW among insurers, employers, and lawyers. 19…”

Expert consensus on facilitators and barriers to return-to-work following surgery for non-traumatic upper extremity conditions: a Delphi study

“…This was to ensure that all factors listed by the participants were included in the two lists developed by the authors. The final list was also crosschecked with factors derived from a systematic review (Peters et al, 2016a) and factors derived for a previous study (Peters et al, 2016b).…”

“…For each factor, the responses of the experts were dichotomized. A score of four (‘very influential’) was used as the cut-off score to create two categories: (1) ‘not-to-somewhat influential’ (Score 1, 2 and 3) and (2) ‘very-to-extremely influential’ (Score 4 and 5) (Hsu and Sandford, 2007; Peters et al, 2016b). Factors that were rated by at least two-thirds of the experts as ‘very-to-extremely influential’ were retained on the short-lists and advanced to the third round (Wong et al, 2015).…”

Factors affecting first return to work following arthroscopic rotator cuff repair: A retrospective observational study in an occupational medicine clinic and single-surgeon practice

“…From the perspective of RTW stakeholders (employers, insurers, lawyers and healthcare providers) in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, the factors rated as having the greatest influence on RTW were predominantly psychosocial and modifiable [14]. These included self-efficacy, postoperative psychological status, employer support and capacity to modify roles, recovery expectations, mood disorders and postoperative pain level.…”