Additional Weekend Physiotherapy clinical trials

Impact of Additional Unsupervised Peddle Bike Physiotherapy on Acutely Hospitalized Medicine Inpatients

During an acute hospitalization, deconditioning from decreased mobility can lead to functional decline. Muscle weakness can lead to frailty, which is linked to falls, immobility, rehospitalisation, institutionalization, and mortality. Many elderly do not regain muscle mass similar to prior to hospitalization and are discharged with worse than baseline function. Early mobilization and physical rehabilitation can improve or prevent loss of function in hospitalized patients. Weekend physiotherapy ensures gains made in mobility during the week are maintained, however, the benefit of additional weekend physiotherapy on acutely hospitalized Internal Medicine adult patients remains unclear. Given this uncertainty, the investigators propose a randomized controlled trial pilot study to examine the outcomes of additional unsupervised physiotherapy. Patients randomized to intervention would receive a Medical Exercise Bike Pedal Exerciser to allow for an additional 20 minutes a day of un-supervised physiotherapy both during the week and on weekends. Deconditioning will be measured for all study participants while hospitalized. After hospital discharge, patients will be telephoned on post-discharge day 3, to assess patient satisfaction and quality of life, and post-discharge day 30 to collect data regarding clinical outcomes (ER visits, re-hospitalizations, and falls). The investigators hypothesize that it is feasible and safe to have additional unsupervised physiotherapy in the elderly population hospitalized for an acute illness on a medical ward and that this will result in improvement in function at discharge due to decreased hospital acquired deconditioning with improved mobility, quality of life and subsequent decreased readmission for falls.