Utilization of In-Patient Physiotherapy Services in a Nigerian Teaching Hospital

The aim of this retrospective study was to examine the trend and pattern of utilization of in-patient physiotherapy services in the management and care of patients by various medical specialties at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria within a period of 4 years. Medical records of all patients admitted under various medical and surgical specialties in the hospital between 2007 – 2010 periods were analyzed to extract information regarding the age, sex, diagnoses, period of admission and referrals for physiotherapy services. The data obtained were fed into SPSS version 16.0 package and analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean, standard deviation and percentage. Results showed that in-patient physiotherapy services utilization correspondingly increased with increased in-patient admissions by various units and specialties in the hospital. However, surgery and internal medicine units had the largest physiotherapy services utilization across the 4-year period studied while the Obstetrics and gynaecology unit had the lowest referral rates and utilization of in-patients physiotherapy services. It is concluded that in-patients physiotherapy services utilization increased proportionally with increased hospital’s patients care demand. However, the rate of utilization observed in the study even though similar to others in Nigeria, is lower than the rates seen in developed countries.