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Home > Patients and Visitors > Specialties and Services > Occupational Therapy > Work Rehabilitation and Return-To-Work Coordination

About us

This unit aims to enable workers to return to work safely following an injury and/or medical condition and prevent re-injury at work. Services available are:

  • Assessment of worker’s abilities and readiness to return to work
  • Functional Capacity Evaluations and Pre-employment functional screens
  • Work conditioning
  • Work-site assessments and modifications
  • Return-To-Work Coordination

A randomised controlled trial of a hospital-based Return-To-Work Coordinator (RTWC) model of care, with Occupational therapists taking on the RTWC role, was found to be effective in facilitating early return to work of injured workers.

H.S.K.Tan, D.S.C.Yeo, J.Y.T.Giam, F.W.F. Cheong & K.F.Chan (2016).

A randomised controlled trial of a Return-To-Work Coordinator model of care in a general hospital to facilitate return to work of injured workers. Work (54): 209-222. Read article here (PDF, 684KB).

7 Principles for Successful Return to Work

Strategies for Employers and Healthcare Professionals

Employers and healthcare professionals have an important role to play in facilitating successful return to work. There are some simple strategies that can be used to help and support an injured worker in the process of returning to work. The following two guides are adapted based on the “Seven principles of Successful Return to Work” published by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH), Canada.



Strategies For Employers 

When one suffers an injury or a medical condition and is unable to return to work (RTW), this may affect one’s health and financial situation. At the same time, workforce manpower and productivity may be compromised at the workplace.

Employers have a big part to play in helping injured / ill workers RTW. Successful RTW makes good business sense as it reduces time and cost of training replacement workers and retains experienced workers. This guide is based on the Seven principles of Successful Return to Work developed by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) (2007, rev 2014). These principles have been found to have positive impact on duration and costs of work disability.

Download PDF (243KB).

If possible, contact the worker within the first 2 weeks of the injury or illness. This contact made with goodwill and concern helps the worker to feel connected to his/her workplace.

The worker may feel lost after his/her injury or illness. It is useful to assign someone in the company to follow up and assist him/her during the RTW process.

This helps the healthcare professionals to better estimate when the worker is fit to RTW. Ask for a referral to an Occupational Therapist if you need assistance to address RTW issues.

Early RTW with appropriate work accommodations keeps the worker engaged in his/her role and facilitates his/her rehabilitation. Work accommodations can be as simple as rearranging the workstation or adjusting the work hours.

Involve and seek support from co-workers in the planning and implementation of the RTW process of the worker to gain cooperation.

Learning about work injury management, ergonomics, and work accommodations helps supervisors to problem solve RTW issues.

Research shows that investment of company resources RTW policies/disability management interventions and commitment to RTW are associated with good RTW outcomes.


Work is an important role for many of us.

Strategies For Healthcare Professionals 

When one suffers an injury or a medical condition and is unable to return to work (RTW), this may affect one’s health and financial situation. At the same time, workforce manpower and productivity may be compromised at the workplace.

There is increasing evidence that work is good for an injured worker's health and well-being. Healthcare professionals can facilitate and support the injured/ ill workers to RTW as soon as it is medically safe to do so, to reap the health benefits of work. This guide is based on the Seven principles of Successful Return to Work developed by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH)(2007, rev 2014). These principles have been found to have positive impact on duration and costs of work disability.

Download PDF (216KB) 

Principle 1: The employer makes early contact with the injured/ ill worker.
Principle 2: Someone has the responsibility to coordinate RTW.
Principle 3: Employers and health care professionals communicate with each other about the workplace demands, with the worker's consent.
Principle 4: Employer offers modified work (or work accommodation) to facilitate early RTW.
Principle 5: RTW plan supports the returning worker without disadvantaging co-workers.
Principle 6: Supervisors are trained in work disability prevention and RTW planning.
Principle 7: The workplace has a strong commitment to health and safety in the workplace.

What Healthcare Professionals Can Do to Facilitate the 7 Principles

  • Talk about RTW with the injured/ill worker early in the recovery process. Emphasise to worker the health benefits of work and that RTW is an important part of recovery.
  • Communicate with other healthcare professionals, worker and employer on worker's fitness to RTW. Involve an Occupational THerapist in the team to facilitate communication with the employer and follow up with RTW issues and concerns.
  • Focus on what the worker can do, rather than what they cannot do. The worker does not need to be 100% well to RTW as long as their functional ability matches the job demands.
  • Establish timeline to set up an expectation of recovery time and date to RTW for worker. This can help the injured/ill worker towards the RTW goal.














A Guide for Occupational Therapists in Singapore

This guide is developed to help OTs understand their roles in facilitating RTW at different stages of a worker's recovery and to facilitate dialogue on RTW with various stakeholders.






2019/01/22
Last Updated on