Multidisciplinary Effort Key in Hip Fracture Care for Elders

TUESDAY, Sept. 6, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- A collaborative care initiative may expedite care for hip fractures among elderly patients, according to research published in the July-August issue of Geriatric Nursing.

Megan Sorich, D.O., from UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and colleagues report on collaborative care of hip fractures undertaken in 2021. The Returning Seniors to Orthopedic Excellence (RESTORE) service focused on prioritizing early pain management and reducing time to surgery for geriatric patients with hip fractures, which was integrated with the Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders (NICHE) program. The NICHE program standardizes early ambulation, delirium assessment and management, and hospital room protocols for better orientation and healing and improves follow-up visit adherence.

The researchers reported that data from 117 patients treated since the RESTORE program launched revealed time to surgery declined from 44 hours to 18 hours. Attendance at postdischarge follow-up visits rose from 40 to 70 percent (versus the national average of 30 percent). Additionally, length of stay dropped from 8.72 days to 7.6 days.

“We believe that the RESTORE program can be implemented at other hospitals,” the authors write. “Keys for success include buy-in and support from the hospital administrators as well as having key stakeholders in the geriatric medicine team as well as orthopedic surgery team invested in the program.”

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