The Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE) consists of a battery of performance-based tests used to inform the decision to return an injured worker back to the workplace. Many people who undergo FCE testing have reached maximal benefit from medical care and traditional physical therapy but are still having pain.

Our FCE differs from most. We include an in-depth movement system assessment to make the experience recovery-focused and informative. The use of a movement system assessment had been thought unnecessary because of claims that the FCE could test function separate from pain. More recent and independent research on FCE’s has found it cannot. FCE performance guidelines developed by the American Physical Therapy Association indicate the need for advanced evaluator skills necessary to determine the root cause for the movement system dysfunction. In accordance with these practice guidelines, The Caruso Method offers an FCE with the added benefit of a movement system assessment. The result of this added benefit is better overall health outcomes among people with chronic movement system pain.