ACOEM Practice Guidelines

ACOEM Practice Guidelines for iOS is designed to work on both iPhone/iPod and iPad interfaces. The Hand, Wrist and Forearm content from ACOEM’s Third Edition Occupational Practice Guidelines is free. The full content including recommendations and treatment plans for all the anatomical regions is available as an in-app subscription.

ACOEM’s Guidelines are the gold standard in effective treatment of occupational injuries and illnesses. They are intended to help improve or restore the health of workers who incur occupationally related illnesses or injuries through identification of the most efficacious treatment strategies to be implemented at the earliest date. ACOEM’s are the only quality evidence-based guidelines that focus on improving the health of injured workers and returning them to functional life and work within 90 days of an injury or illness. This is clinically appropriate, as data show that more than 90 percent of workplace injuries are resolved within this time period. However, health issues outside of the 90-day range are also comprehensively addressed throughout the Guidelines.

The Guidelines were developed in response to rising expectations for improvements in the quality of care; increased expectations for good outcomes and medical safety; the need to decrease over utilization and to curb unproductive and even harmful interventions; and the need to reflect advances in healthcare based on the best available quality evidence. The Guidelines – which were developed, tested, and refined in healthcare practices – present essential evidence-based information to address the injured worker’s functional impairment and safely return him or her to work. The treatment approach takes a comprehensive view that encompasses the medical, health, psychosocial, and functional outcomes of the injured worker. This approach enables the Guidelines to be an integral, seamless part of treatment planning and case-management systems. The Guidelines are an important tool for physicians and other health care providers, and all others with responsibility for or involvement in worker health and workers’ compensation systems to optimize the health of injured workers.