ArticleArchives of physical medicine and rehabilitation2024
Reducing Physical Therapy Consults for Patients With High Functional Mobility in the Acute Medical Inpatient Setting: A Difference-in-Difference Analysis.
Article in Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Investigating acute care physical therapy in general medicine: a retrospective analysis of utilization and effectiveness.Physiotherapy theory and practice · 2026Observational
- Exploring the influence of hospital context on acute care physical therapy fall prevention practice: A qualitative study.Physiotherapy theory and practice · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo evaluate the effectiveness of clinical decision support for reducing misallocation of physical therapy (PT) consults.
designA prospective quasi-experimental study. Between October 2018 and November 2021, routinely documented data on functional status and physical therapy referrals were collected from electronic medical records.
settingHospital Medicine and General Internal Medicine service lines at a large quaternary academic medical center.
participants20,810 adult patients hospitalized on any of the included treatment (hospital medicine) or control (general internal medicine) service lines.
main outcome measureThe primary outcome was "change in proportion of misallocated PT consults" measured as likelihood of PT consults for patients admitted with high functional mobility scores. Changes in the primary outcome from the pre-intervention to post-intervention period were compared in the control and treatment groups using propensity score-weighted difference-in-differences multivariable logit regression adjusting for clinically relevant covariates.
interventionThe intervention period was measured for 20 months and consisted of a clinical decision support tool embedded in the daily note templates for hospital medicine providers. The tool provided education on patient mobility scores and their relation to need for PT consult. The tool was rolled out without any further announcements or education.
resultsOur cohort included 20,810 unique admissions (mean age 58.9, 55% women, 83% Black). Post-intervention, the likelihood of PT referrals for patients with high baseline mobility (AM-PAC >18) decreased by 7.3% (P<.001) for the treatment group compared with control, adjusted for age, sex, race, ethnicity, length-of-stay, and mobility change.
conclusionMobility score-based clinical decision support can decrease unneeded PT consults in the inpatient setting. This could help allocate therapy time for at-risk patients while also having a positive effect on health care systems.
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