Effectiveness of a multidisciplinary educational intervention in patients with hip fracture: SWEET HOME study

Hip fracture is a common injury among elderly patients. The main goal of our study was to assess the effectiveness of a multidisciplinary educational intervention aimed at hip fracture patients to promote home discharges and reduce in-hospital complications.

A quasi-experimental study was performed by taking repeated measurements at hospital admission, at hospital discharge, and at both 30days and one year of discharge. Patients aged ≥65years with hip fracture who were admitted to the Orthogeriatric Service between February 2016 and January 2017 were included in the study. The educational intervention consisted in two coordinated actions: patient education administered during their hospitalization and multimodal support provided during their discharge home.

A total of 67 patients were included in the study (77.6% of whom were women; 84.19±7,78 years old). Of these, 70.1% were discharged home, which doubles the figures recorded in the 2014-2015 period. The rate of readmission at 30days and one year of the discharge was 8.5%. At the one-year follow-up, the patient's dependence to perform basic activities of daily living was nearer to the pre-fracture level (Barthel: 86.67±19.31; 94.33±14.66), their mobility had improved in comparison with the time of discharge (Parker: 4.73±1.84; 6.73±2.76; Timed Up and Go Test: 38.29±21.27; 21.91±10.97), and their cognitive function had not worsened significantly. The patient education measures improved the patients' autonomy as perceived by the patients, the caregivers, and the healthcare providers. Satisfaction with the healthcare received was high.

As a novelty to the already described benefits in orthogeriatric care models, this study would contribute by proving an increase of the number of patients discharged home in a safe condition.