Abstract
This study, a nationwide survey of physical therapy （PT） departments in acute care hospitals, was designed to assess equipment and facility safety. The subjects were 262 hospitals extracted from hospitals registered in the nationwide Welfare and Medical Service Network system （WAMNET） business, under certain conditions. The method was a questionnaire mail survey. The survey items included: （1） founding organization; （2） number of clinical departments; （3） number of beds; （4） number of staff members; （5） clinical department based on PT request and disease ranking; （6） emergency response manual; （7） response to changes in patient status; （8） knowledge and skill of staff; （9） RM equipment; （10） PT cancellation criteria, etc. The recovery rate of questionnaire mail survey was 50.0% （131/262）. The number of beds was 150 to 1,453 （average 575.5±217.9 beds）, the average number of clinical departments was 24.3±3.7, and the average number of physiotherapists was 19.9±11.4. In terms of the founding organization, the order was municipalities 26 （19.8%）, medical corporations 19 （14.5%）, and Japanese Red Cross Society 14 （10.7%）. With respect to RM equipment, the order was pulse oximeter 130 （99.2%）, emergency cart 123 （93.9%）, monitor electrocardiogram 121 （92.4%）, sphygmomanometer 120 （91.6%）, and automatic external defibrillator （AED） 112 （85.5%）. Regarding the criteria for discontinuing physical therapy, 115 （87.8%） indicated “yes” while 14 （10.7%） indicated “no”. The most common types of accidents were “fall （fall downs, fall from stairs, beds, etc.）” and “route troubles”. The PT Department of acute care hospitals is in a state of increasing risk of medical accidents due to shortening of the length of hospital stays and early start of PT due to aging of the subjects, in addition to the instability of their medical condition peculiar to the acute phase. Approximately 90% of hospitals maintained properly their RM equipment. On the other hand, small-scale hospitals （100 beds or less, with approximately 5 working physiotherapists）, which accounted for approximately 10%, did not have discontinuation criteria in place, a point which was considered divergent from the scientific nature of RM to protect patients.
