What is a medical impairment?
A medical impairment is a number drawn from a doctor’s handbook that puts a physical disability into a number. The current version of the handbook is the 5th Edition of the American Medical Association’s Guidebook for the Evaluation of Permanent Medical Impairment. This permits a doctor in Tennessee to talk to a doctor from any other state and everyone is literally on the same page in describing the medical condition and the degree of disability. Impairment generally is a loss of body function based upon the alteration of one’s health status. This may be from injury, disease process, surgery etc. There are many conditions that do not carry a medical impairment although they may be quite disabling. Many physicians do not give any impairment, for instance, for headaches which may be very disabling depending upon the severity.
