Atos Healthcare blog

We know that some people getting ready to attend a Work Capability Assessment (WCA) with Atos Healthcare are concerned about how the process works. If you’re about to attend an assessment you’ll quite rightly want to feel confident that you’ll be assessed as an individual – and not feel part of a tick box exercise in a computer programme.

So is it true that it’s all about what the computer says in a disability assessment?

The answer is absolutely not.

Each and every assessment is led by a trained medical practitioner to ensure you’re assessed according to your personal circumstances.

Driving Consistency and Fairness

Atos Healthcare carries out disability assessments on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).  The criteria we use is set out by the DWP and we apply these criteria consistently in each and every assessment.  That’s how the DWP can be confident that an assessment in Scotland is carried out in the same way as an assessment in London.  The assessment will allow us to provide advice to the DWP. Once the DWP have received our advice, they will notify you of their decision.  The DWP will take into account all available evidence when deciding your benefit entitlement.

We have various ways of ensuring our health care professionals carry out assessments to the required levels of quality and consistency regardless of where they are in the country.

We begin with training that’s provided to every new joiner, and using course material that is approved by DWP.  Health care professionals must understand the criteria laid out in government legislation and around which the assessment has been designed. They must also be able to make their own clinical judgements within the scope of that legislation.

Following successful training, every health care professional is then periodically audited to check they are continuing to apply their experience consistently.

And during most assessments the health care professional will use a tailored clinical computer application called ‘LiMA’ which has been used for many years to assure consistency of service.

LiMA – How it was designed and how it works

LiMA stands for “Logic-integrated Medical Assessment”.  It’s a specialist application that was designed with input from the DWP, looking carefully at the requirement for each step of the process. Importantly, the team responsible for its design, testing and performance is led by medical experts so it’s not simply an IT application, but is grounded in medical expertise at each and every step.

LiMA is also frequently updated to make sure it reflects the latest clinical research and best practice. For example, it was recently refreshed to include recommendations made by Professor Harrington in his Year 2 Review of the WCA.

The Benefits of using LiMA in Disability Assessments

The LiMA application is there for two reasons:

Firstly it provides an electronic record of your assessment report, which is then sent to the DWP, who make the decision on every claim.  As a customer, that means you can be confident that the report containing your personal information has been transferred using a very secure method and in the quickest way possible.

Secondly it provides a framework that contains the criteria translated into “medical protocols” which are simply a description that can be used to explain a certain level of disability. Our health care professionals use the template of the application to guide them through the different parts of the assessment.  As a customer, that means you can be confident your assessment has covered all the areas required by DWP, whilst still being specific to your individual situation.

The computer application does not drive any opinion, judgement or outcome.  It’s a guide and recording tool only. Doctors, nurses and physiotherapists are always required to use their clinical judgement in every case. Any medical opinion comes from a fully trained health care professional and never from a computer application.

We know it can feel disconcerting to take part in an assessment when someone is typing or looking at a computer screen, but you can be reassured that the health care professional is fully focused on you and is listening to you.  They need to make sure that they are recording the right information to pass on to the Decision Maker in DWP.

Computers are a quicker, more secure way of capturing complex information than paper, and they help to make sure you can rely on the consistency and fairness of the process.  But you can also be assured that all of our assessments are led by a qualified health care professional, supported by a computer, never the other way round.

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