Define MMI

After an injury, the patient is sent to rehabilitation in order to recover. Sometimes, that rehabilitation does not lead to a full recovery. The patient is then left with a disability that is permanent. This is MMI or maximum medical improvement.

Function

• Maximum medical improvement (MMI) is a distinction used primarily by workers compensation officials to describe patients who have been assessed for long term or permanent disability.

Time Frame

• The term "MMI" is used to describe a patient whose medical condition is stable, yet will remain unchanged for at least a year. It's used to describe a condition that is very likely a permanent disability, one that will never heal.

Unchangeable

• Further medical intervention will have no affect on the MMI condition. It will not improve, nor will the lack of medical treatment make the patient̵7;s condition deteriorate.

Term Change

• According to the American Medical Association, at the point of MMI, an injury changes classification from ̶0;impairment̶1; distinction to permanent disability.

Determination Process

• The patient is assessed throughout his recovery. At the point of MMI, the injury, recovery history and medical records are examined. Then, the patient̵7;s work and basic living activities are assessed. A complicated evaluation is then made to determine if the recovery is at the point of maximal medical improvement.