Implementation of an electronic care pathway for hip fracture patients: a pilot before and after study

Abstract

Background Care pathways are generally paper-based and can cause communication failures between multidisciplinary teams, potentially compromising the safety of the patient. Computerized care pathways may facilitate better communication between clinical teams. This study aimed to investigate whether an electronic care pathway (e-pathway) reduces delays in surgery and hospital length of stay compared to a traditional paper-based care pathway (control) in hip fracture patients. Methods A single-centre evaluation with a retrospective control group was conducted in the Orthogeriatric Ward, Nepean Hospital, New South Wales, Australia. We enrolled patients aged > 65 years that were hospitalized for a hip fracture in 2008 (control group) and 2012 (e-pathway group). The e-pathway provided the essential steps in the care of patients with hip fracture, including examinations and treatment to be carried out. Main outcome measures were delay in surgery and hospital length of stay; secondary outcomes were in-hospital mortality and discharge location. Results A total of 181 patients were enrolled in the study (129 control; 54 e-pathway group). There was a significant reduction in delay to surgery in the e-pathway group compared to control group in unadjusted (OR = 0.19; CI 0.09–0.39; p < 0.001) and adjusted (OR = 0.22; CI 0.10–0.49; p < 0.001) models. There were no significant differences between groups for length of stay (median 11 vs 12 days; p = 0.567), in-hospital mortality (1 vs 7 participants; p = 0.206) or discharge location (p = 0.206). Conclusions This pilot study suggests that, compared to a paper-based care pathway, implementation of an e-pathway for hip fracture patients results in a reduction in total number of delays to surgery, but not hospital length of stay. Further evaluation is warranted using a larger cohort investigating both clinical and patient-reported outcome measures.

Use of co‐design methodology in the development of cardiovascular disease secondary prevention interventions: A scoping review

“…However, cardiac rehabilitation continues to have poor attendance rates, with only 15%–30% of eligible patients engaging with the programme 12,13 . To address poor uptake, policymakers and healthcare providers need to ensure that interventions are well‐accepted and adapted to the specific needs and perceptions of the target population 14,15 . One way to achieve this is for researchers to work with end‐users and nonacademic stakeholders in the development of interventions; this is known as co‐design.…”

Evaluation of Systemwide Improvement Programs to Optimize Time to Surgery for Patients With Hip Fractures

“…190 studies underwent full-text review, and 69 studies were selected for final analysis ( Figure and eAppendix 3 in the Supplement ). 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 …”

“…190 studies underwent full-text review, and 69 studies were selected for final analysis (Figure and eAppendix 3 in the Supplement). Among the final 69 improvement programs, 49 programs significantly decreased TTS 33,35,38,41,[43][44][45][46][47][48][49][51][52][53][54]56,57,[59][60][61][62][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][74][75][76][79][80][81][82][85][86][87][88]91,94,96,97,99,101,103 and 20 programs 39,40,42,50,…”

A micro-costing analysis of post-fracture care pathways: results from the International Costs and Utilities Related to Osteoporotic Fractures Study (ICUROS)

“…Patients with hip fracture had the highest rate of hospital admissions and subsequent admission to a rehabilitation ward, which contributed to the highest costs per patient. Clinical novel solutions to reduce hospital length of stay and associated in-hospital costs for hip fracture patients are warranted [ 29 ]. Admission rates to a RAC facility were low across non-hip fracture groups, similar to results from a recent cohort study that reported risk of institutionalization 6 months after multiple fracture sites compared to hip fractures [ 30 ].…”