Interprofessional collaboration may pay off: introducing a collaborative approach in an orthopaedic ward

Area of Science:

• Orthopaedic Surgery
• Healthcare Management
• Patient Recovery

Background:

• Fast-track hip and knee surgery aims to optimize pain management, early mobilization, and reduce hospital stays.
• Interprofessional collaboration is crucial for achieving these fast-track goals.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the impact of daily interprofessional meetings on hospital length of stay for hip and knee replacement patients.
• To improve discharge planning and task delegation through enhanced collaboration.

Main Methods:

• A case-control study compared length of stay before and after implementing daily interprofessional meetings.
• Meetings involved surgeons, nurses, occupational therapists, and physiotherapists using a checklist for discharge planning.
• 75 patients were in the pre-intervention group and 88 in the post-intervention group.

Main Results:

• A significant reduction in hospital length of stay was observed for total hip replacement patients (4.1 to 2.7 days, p < 0.05).
• No significant reduction was found for knee replacement patients (3.7 to 3.1 days, p = 0.33).

Conclusions:

• Implementing daily interprofessional meetings can reduce hospital length of stay for total hip replacement patients.
• Further studies are required to determine the effectiveness of this intervention for knee replacement patients.