Effects of assigning physical therapists exclusively to the acute-phase stroke patient ward.

The study was done in one hospital, so the results may not apply to other settings. It compared patients from earlier and later years, not patients randomly assigned to different care, so other changes over time could explain the findings. The new ward system combined several actions, including PT assessment, physician consultation, exercise instruction, and weekly case conferences, so the effect of any single action cannot be separated. The analysis was retrospective, so the authors could not examine how staff attitudes or ward processes changed over time. It included only patients in the stroke ward, so it does not show what would happen in other acute wards. The proportion of women differed between the earlier and later periods, so the groups were not identical at baseline. The paper did not clearly define one primary outcome among ADL change, length of stay, time to start rehabilitation, and implementation rate.

The authors declared no conflict of interest.

Do not conclude that assigning PTs exclusively to the ward caused better daily-function outcomes. This was a single-center before-and-after registry, not a randomised trial, and the new system included PT assessment, physician consultation, exercise instruction, and weekly case conferences together. The contribution of any single component cannot be separated. Length of stay did not clearly change.