January 1, 2001

WLDI releases 6^th edition of Official Disability Guidelines – ODG 2001 - now including descriptions, incidence and prevalence indicators, and benchmarking tables

Work Loss Data Institute has released Official Disability Guidelines 2001, the 6^th edition of ODG with updated “Best Practice” Guidelines, physical therapy guidelines, and raw data from CDC, OSHA and NHDS.  In addition, three new features have been added: Descriptions, incidence and prevalence indicators, and benchmarking tables.

For every diagnosis, there is now a brief description of the illness or injury including symptoms and common names, clarifying any questions that non-medical personnel may have about the ICD-9-CM official coding system by which ODG is organized.  The new descriptions also make for an expanded keyword index and greater search options on the electronic versions.

Incidence and prevalence indicators show what percentage of lost workdays and occupational lost workdays are represented by each ICD9 (i.e. carpal tunnel syndrome accounts for 0.21 percent of total lost work days and 7.55 percent of occupational lost work days).  They also provide the number of days per 100 workers that can be attributed to each condition as an annual national benchmark.  These indicators allow for quick identification of the most common illnesses and injuries and provide more tools for benchmarking claims data.

Lastly, the new benchmarking tables show the number of days between the last workday until return-to-work, at each decile, from 10 percent to 100 percent (i.e. 10 percent of people with carpal tunnel were back by the thirteenth day, 20 percent by the fourteenth day, etc.).  For comparison with claims data, only cases out more than seven days are included, to be consistent with the normal seven-day waiting period.