Missed Physical Therapy Treatments in the Acute Hospital Toward a More Complete Understanding

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-15-2020

Publication Title

Journal of Acute Care Physical Therapy

First page number:

1

Last page number:

8

Abstract

Introduction: Therapy sessions that do not result in treatment (nontreatment) occur in 15% to 26% of scheduled sessions. The relationship between therapist personality and nontreatment is unknown. Objective: To determine the relationship between physical therapist personality and nontreatment events in the acute hospital. Methods: The relationship between physical therapist personality (Big Five Inventory) and nontreatment was statistically modeled adjusting for other therapist and patient factors. Results: There were 522 patients and 34 physical therapists with 918 scheduled physical therapy sessions included. The average age of patients was 71 (SD = 16, range = 17-99) and 41 (SD = 7, range 27-54) for therapists. Therapists with higher openness had lower nontreatment, odds ratio 0.93; 95% confidence interval 0.87 to 0.99; P = .045. Conclusions: The positive effect of physical therapy is minimized when scheduled treatment does not occur. Lower nontreatment is associated with more trait openness. Attributes related to openness (eg, inquisitiveness and problem-solving) should be cultivated. More research is needed to understand nontreatment and guide therapists in hospital patient care.

Keywords

Physical therapy; Patient recovery; Acute hospitals; Length of stay; Treatment sessions; Nontreatment

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences | Physical Therapy | Rehabilitation and Therapy

Language

English

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