title: Inter-physician agreement on the readiness of sick-listed employees to return to work.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the agreement between occupational physician (OP) ratings of an employee's readiness to return to work (RRTW).
  
  
  METHODS
  Anonymized written vignettes of 132 employees, sick-listed for at least 3 weeks, were reviewed by 5 OPs. The OPs intuitively rated RRTW as the ability (knowledge and skills) and willingness (motivation and confidence) of sick-listed employees to resume work. Inter-OP percentages of agreement were calculated and Cohen's kappas (κ) were determined to correct for agreement by chance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The percentage of agreement between OPs was 57% (range 39-89%) on the ability and 63% (range 48-87%) on the willingness of sick-listed employees to resume work. The mean κ was 0.14 (range from -0.21 to 0.79) for ability and 0.25 (range from -0.11 to 0.74) for willingness. The OP-rating of RRTW of employees sick-listed with mental disorders did not differ from the OP-rating of RRTW of employees with musculoskeletal disorders.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The inter-OP agreement on intuitively rated RRTW showed a wide variability, which accentuates the need for instruments to establish an employee's RRTW and for training in giving well founded return to work recommendations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, Community and Occupational Medicine, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jolanda A H
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Schreuder
authors.forename: Corné A M
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Roelen
authors.forename: Mintje
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: de Boer
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brouwer
authors.forename: Johan W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Groothoff
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D009426:Netherlands; D010820:Physicians; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D018582:Sick Leave; D014937:Work; D014938:Work Capacity Evaluation; D017132:Workplace