Development and validity of the expectations of physiotherapists questionnaire on practice management software

BACKGROUND: Despite the growing trend in the use of digital technologies in physiotherapy, the overall adoption of both, practice management software (PMS) and electronic health records in physiotherapy clinics has been low and slow over time. In order to learn what factors determine the adoption of these technologies by physiotherapists, there is a need to examine the expectations of physiotherapists (EPs) on specific software attributes. The main aims of this study were to develop a questionnaire to measure and describe the EPs towards PMS. The knowledge of these EPs will be useful to guide PMS design in order to improve physiotherapists‘ satisfaction. METHODS: Instrument development study with validity and reliability testing. The development of this questionnaire was conducted in three phases: identification of attributes to be explored, development of the items, pilot study, and psychometric testing. The questionnaire was distributed to chartered physiotherapists. A total of 272 participants completed the questionnaire. RESULTS: A series of analysis were conducted to assess item reduction, factor structure of the questionnaire and metric properties of multi-item scales. From the initial 43 attributes, the final version of the questionnaire consisted of 26 items on EPs, grouped in nine scales and two areas (clinical care and administrative activities). As a result, all scores had strong item-scale correlations, excellent item scaling success, and good internal consistency (Cronbach alpha coefficients of >.7). Our study also showed that current EPs were high towards most of the items, only two scales concentrated most of the attributes with the least expectations (monitoring quality of care and digital health interventions). Our study included physiotherapists with and without experience with PMS, and it showed that both groups had a similar pattern of expectations. Our study provides a valuable questionnaire of EP on PMS attributes for clinical care and administrative activities and shows a detailed development process.