Beyond orthogeriatric co-management model: benefits of implementing a process management system for hip fracture

Hip fracture is a major health care problem worldwide. Business process management systems (PMSs) have made significant contributions in health care environments to improve patient care standards. The effectiveness of PMS applied to hip fracture in older adults in the acute phase has been demonstrated.

Fragility fracture is a major health care problem worldwide. Business PMSs have made significant contributions in health care environments to improve patient care standards. It is a new way of management that defines a homogeneous application procedure involving eliminating steps that add no value and developing explicit supervision criteria, in addition to identifying the appropriate managers.

The aim of our trial was to assess the effectiveness of the PMS applied to hip fracture versus the orthogeriatric co-management model in the acute phase.

All consecutive patients aged ≥ 65 who were admitted to Hospital Universitario Infanta Leonor between January 1, 2009, and December 31, 2016, for acute hip fracture surgery were included. We compared the effectiveness indicators in the acute phase between the preprocess period (orthogeriatric co-management) and the process period.

One thousand two hundred twenty-two patients were included (76.6% women). Mean age (SD) was 83.9 (6.4) years. Effectiveness management indicators are the following: length of hospital stay, time to admission to the ward from the emergency department, preoperative stay, surgery in < 48 h, and the operating room availability which were all improved in the process period with statistical significance. Effectiveness clinical indicators are the following: the numbers of patients with operated limb loading approved after surgery, discharged to home, and with osteoporosis treatment postfracture at the time of discharge which were statistically significantly higher in the process period, and the number of patients who suffered from delirium was statistically significantly lower in the process period. The number of in-hospital deaths was lower during the process period without statistical significance.

Our results demonstrated the effectiveness of the PMS applied to hip fracture in older adults compared with an orthogeriatric co-management model in the acute phase, based on both management indicators and clinical indicators.