Physiotherapy contact in the emergency department and hospital re‑presentation rates: A systematic review and meta‑regression.

Authors

J L Citroen, M G King, E C Bell, D Crompton, A Semciw

Published in

Australasian emergency care. Oct 16, 2026. Epub Oct 16, 2026.

Abstract

To determine if physiotherapy input in the Emergency Department (ED) impacts patient re-presentation rates.
Systematic review with meta-analysis and meta-regression.
Three electronic databases (Medline (Ovid), EMBASE (Ovid) and CINAHL) were searched from inception to November 16th, 2025. Included articles were peer-reviewed randomised controlled trials, observational studies or audits evaluating re-presentation rates for physiotherapy intervention in ED compared to an ED physician. Risk of bias was assessed using The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) tool was used to assess level of evidence for the meta-analysis.
Sixteen studies were included in the systematic review. Overall pooled results from ten studies included in the 30-day re-presentation meta-analysis provided low-quality evidence of no difference in the risk of re-presentation following physiotherapy intervention compared with ED physician management (RR 1.04, 95% CI 0.69-1.55). Subgroup analysis by presenting condition demonstrated a lower risk of 30-day re-presentation following physiotherapy intervention for fall presentations (RR 0.66, 95% CI 0.59-0.74), with no differences observed for musculoskeletal presentations (RR 1.17, 95% CI 0.61-2.22) or general ED presentations (RR 0.93, 95% CI 0.66-1.33) compared with ED physician management.
Irrespective of included condition, physiotherapy intervention in ED does not increase the risk of re-presentation within 30 days of initial presentation, and potentially reduces re-presentation rates for fall patients. Further research is required to determine the most effective component of physiotherapy intervention to reduce re-presentation rates and its impact on ED crowding.

PMID:
42888147
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 17 Oct 2026.

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