A Multi-Site Feasibility Trial of Embedded Emergency Department Physical Therapy

This is a multi-site feasibility trial of an embedded emergency department (ED) physical therapy care model for low back pain at two EDs in the Northwestern Medicine and University of Utah Health systems. The study intervention (embedded ED physical therapy) is a reconceptualization of the traditional outpatient physical therapy care model in which we place a physical therapist directly in the ED to initiate timely care for patients with low back pain; we previously evaluated this intervention in a single center randomized trial. This multi-site feasibility trial will be comprised of 9 months of active intervention and 12 months of longitudinal data collection. The two sites will be parallel randomized 1:1 to receive either the embedded ED physical therapy condition (intervention, n=1) or usual care (control, n=1) via simple randomization. This trial focuses on feasibility outcomes - such as our ability to enroll participants, deliver the intervention with fidelity, and collect longitudinal patient-reported outcome data and electronic health record data - but a future multi-site full-scale trial will focus on the outcomes of pain-interference and opioid use.

NCT Number	NCT07224945
Lead Sponsor	Northwestern University Collaborators: National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), University of Utah, Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital, Northwestern Memorial Hospital
Conditions	Low Back Pain
Enrollment	140 participants
Start Date	2026-01-05
Primary Completion	2027-01-04 (estimated)
Study Completion	2028-01-04 (estimated)
Updated on ClinicalTrials.gov	2026-01-06