Social insurance administrative officers’ perceptions of their assignment and problematic issues in their work with heart failure clients in the sick-leave and rehabilitation process

Abstract

This article explores social insurance administrative officers’ (AOs’) perceptions of the sick-leave process for heart failure clients. The work situation and the sick-leave process for people with heart failure tend to be complex and problematic. The problems are often caused by a lack of understanding from professionals, such as social insurance AOs. The study draws on two focus group interviews with social insurance AOs from two different social insurance agencies. The interviews were guided by an open approach, and analysis was performed on the interviews’ manifest content through a qualitative content analysis. The findings demonstrate that the AOs were concerned about the clients’ ability to return to work, but they were hindered in fulfilling their duties through insufficient collaboration with physicians and unclear sickness certificates. There seems to be a gap between the AOs’ assignment and their ability to make well-founded decisions about their clients’ ability to work. This can have consequences for the individual who lives with heart failure. In the sociopolitical agenda of Sweden, this can have consequences for the development of collaboration between AOs and the medical experts who provide the foundations for decisions about work ability of the client with heart failure.