The Effectiveness of Hospital in Motion, a Multidimensional Implementation Project to Improve Patients' Movement Behavior During Hospitalization

OBJECTIVE: Hospital in Motion is a multidimensional implementation project aiming to improve movement behavior during hospitalization. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of Hospital in Motion on movement behavior.

METHODS: This prospective study used a pre-implementation and post-implementation design. Hospital in Motion was conducted at 4 wards of an academic hospital in the Netherlands. In each ward, multidisciplinary teams followed a 10-month step-by-step approach, including the development and implementation of a ward-specific action plan with multiple interventions to improve movement behavior. Inpatient movement behavior was assessed before the start of the project and 1 year later using a behavioral mapping method in which patients were observed between 9:00 am and 4:00 pm. The primary outcome was the percentage of time spent lying down. In addition, sitting and moving, immobility-related complications, length of stay, discharge destination home, discharge destination rehabilitation setting, mortality, and 30-day readmissions were investigated. Differences between pre-implementation and post-implementation conditions were analyzed using the chi-square test for dichotomized variables, the Mann Whitney test for non-normal distributed data, or independent samples t test for normally distributed data.

RESULTS: Patient observations demonstrated that the primary outcome, the time spent lying down, changed from 60.1% to 52.2%. For secondary outcomes, the time spent sitting increased from 31.6% to 38.3%, and discharges to a rehabilitation setting reduced from 6 (4.4%) to 1 (0.7%). No statistical differences were found in the other secondary outcome measures.

CONCLUSION: The implementation of the multidimensional project Hospital in Motion was associated with patients who were hospitalized spending less time lying in bed and with a reduced number of discharges to a rehabilitation setting.

IMPACT: Inpatient movement behavior can be influenced by multidimensional interventions. Programs implementing interventions that specifically focus on improving time spent moving, in addition to decreasing time spent lying, are recommended.