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FCE Certification

The Delta Method®: Functional Capacity Evaluation Certification

Course Overview

Work-related injuries can present unique assessment difficulties, especially when the diagnosis is inconsistent with physical findings and observed behaviors. It is not uncommon, especially in traumatic injury cases, for an individual’s perception of their discomfort and physical capacity to become distorted.

Further, the presence of a strong fear of re-injury, hostility toward an employer and/or opportunity for secondary gain can negatively influence test performance and result in a lower functional capacity assessment than is truly present. It is therefore critical that we understand and identify the underlying limiting factors that may be directly or indirectly influencing an individual’s performance.

Course Description

This Comprehensive two-day course is designed to teach the essentials of functional capacity evaluation design and interpretation with a report format that is strait forward and easily understood. Participants will build on their evaluation skills learning to use both physical testing and perceptual tools to better define the underlying limiting factors in any injury case.

This course is intended for Physical Therapists, Physical Therapy Assistants, Occupational Therapists, and Occupational Therapy Assistants. Successful completion of this course will not only result in certification in the Delta Method® of FCE, it will provide new assessment tools that can be employed immediately in any clinical setting.

Course Objectives

• Administer and interpret selected perceptual and physical test protocols
• Establish safe maximal lifting and carrying capacity
• Interpret consistency of effort measures and cross validation tests
• Identify job-specific modifications and restrictions
• Support your FCE conclusions in a legal environment
• Attain certification in The Delta Method: Functional Capacity Evaluation

Course Instructor

CHARLES DEL TATTO, PT, FCE is a Licensed Physical Therapist and Functional Capacity Evaluator with more than 25 years experience. He has maintained a private practice since 1978 and is Co-Founder and Clinical Director of Industrial Rehabilitation Associates, Inc., where he conducts functional capacity evaluations and teaches an FCE certification course, designs job-specific work hardening programs and provides acute orthopedic care. Mr. Del Tatto also serves as a consultant to the disability insurance industry in the design and interpretation of functional capacity evaluations.

As frequent speaker on ergonomics and early return-to-work strategies, Mr. Del Tatto has worked with the Occupational Health Program at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Associated Industries of Massachusetts, and The New England College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. In the public sector, he has been a consultant to the Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents Office of Health Policy, coordinating the development of worker’s compensation treatment guidelines. Mr. Del Tatto earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Therapy from New York University in 1976.

Course Schedule