Fitness for Duty Certification

burkhome

I am the Director of Human Resources for a small private liberal arts college and am new to the HR Hero Forum. I have a question that I hope someone can assist me with.

I have an employee who started having major heart problems and subsequently has been off work for a couple of weeks while undergoing treatment. I designated the time off work as FMLA and requested medical certification. I never received the medical certification but the employee did provide me with a physician's return to work statement that indicated employee could return to work without restrictions. The concern I have is that I believe the RTW certification is from the employee's family physician and not from the physician who has been treating for the heart conditions and I am concerned that the heart physician may not agree with the return to work without restrictions that I have received. What recommendations might anyone have for me?

neveradull

Have you asked the employee about the certification? Remember it is the employer who grants FMLA and as I see it you can grant or deny. If you deny it handle as an attendance issue. Personally I would count it as FMLA. I would also accept the RTW from family physician.
In my experience it is usually the family physician who refers to the specialist and receives a written report back and then continues followup and treatment. The Cartiologist may see the patient in six months increments while the family physician sees her/him more frequently.
Welcome to the forum.

burkhome

I did designate this as FMLA and have accepted the RTW certification even though I'm not comfortable with the RTW. In addition, I have spoken with the employee who is to see the family physician again today. I have encouraged the employee to have the physician provide the certification so we will see. Thanks for your comments.

njjel

We require the Certification to be returned to us. Some have given a dr. note, but we require the Cert.