[Length of hospital stay and functional status in patients with delayed start of physical therapy].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between hospital stay, functional status and physical therapy delay (PT delay) in patients admitted to a surgery unit of a high complexity hospital.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Observational, analytic and cross-sectional study. We included 279 patients (124 women). Days of PT delay (calculated as the difference between hospital admission and start of PT), days of bed rest, prolonged hospital stay (75th percentile of bed rest days), and functional status were registered to investigate the influence of PT delay on these variables.

RESULTS: The number of days of PT delay was strongly associated with the number of bed rest days (r2 = 0.74, p < 0.05). Moreover, a PT delay of five days or more was associated with extended lengths of stay in our sample (p < 0.05). However, physical therapy had similar effects on functional status, even when there were PT delays (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: PT delay is associated with extended length of stay in patients admitted to a surgery unit of a high complexity hospital. Future studies should investigate the associated factors that could explain the occurrence of PT delays in surgical patients.