In recent years, as more tertiary hospitals try to streamline lessurgent emergency cases, physiotherapy in the emergency department has seen its profile surge. At the same time, more research islooking at how physiotherapists in the emergency departmentaffect patient outcomes and departmental efficiency. From the late1990s to the mid-2000s, observational studies and commentarieswere used to build a description of what a physiotherapist in theemergency department might manage.1,2 Now, however, morerobust clinical studies exist and they support physiotherapistsbeing safe, effective and efficient managers of soft tissue injuries orminor trauma.3–5 There are studies that have targeted isolatedclinical conditions (eg, back pain, soft tissue injuries).4,6–8 Otherstudies have looked at professional issues that may have initiallybeen a barrier to the uptake of physiotherapy in the emergencydepartment, such as patient satisfaction.9,10 However, the diversepotential of emergency department physiotherapy has not beenfully demonstrated in this body of evidence.
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