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

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.