The Emergency Physiotherapy Practitioner (EPP): descriptive case study of development and implementation in two Danish hospitals

Background: Role of physiotherapists in the emergency department is a recent professional development and is still limited to few western countries. There is a degree of uncertainty on the role, its benefits and implementation of the role in the healthcare systems. Therefore, this case study aims to describe the development, implementation and evaluation of the emergency physiotherapy practitioner (EPP) role in two Danish hospitals.

Methods: This study is designed as a case study, describing two cases: Slagelse hospital and Horsens hospital. Performance measures were assessed by data extracted from emergency registers and quality of service was assessed by interprofessional discussions and patient satisfaction investigations.

Results: Both cases demonstrate that physiotherapy services in the emergency department are a valuable addition and EPP is gradually establishing itself as a new role in the two Danish hospitals. Type and number of patients managed by EPP, patient satisfaction and improvements in the EPP role are presented.

Conclusions: Based on the preliminary data from the two hospitals, we recommend that the role of EPP should be considered as a strategy to improve effectiveness and quality of emergency departments. However, a uniform competency profile and vigorous research on various parameters of the role’s success are needed.