Whole Person Impairment

Whole Person Impairment

Means the medical effects of an injury or a disease and is drawn from the American Medical Association Guides where it is there referred to as 'whole man' impairment.

Evaluation of whole person impairment is a medical appraisal of the nature and extent of the effect of an injury or disease on a person's functional capacity and on the activities of daily living.

The Guides are structured by assembling detailed descriptions of impairments into groups according to body system and expressing the extent of each impairment as a percentage value of the functional capacity of a normal healthy person.  Thus, a percentage value can be assigned to an employee's impairment by reference to the relevant description in this Guide.