Factors Influencing Time to Definitive Care in Hip Fracture Patients in a Rural Health System

Current literature has not adequately addressed factors affecting wait times for hip fracture surgery in the rural setting.

This study aims to assess the factors affecting admission, transit, and preoperative wait times that impact the timeliness of hip fracture surgery within a rural health system.

A single-center retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted in a rural community comprising five community hospitals and two receiving hospitals. A trauma registry study included all hip fracture cases from 2019. Mean, standard deviation, median, and interquartile range were calculated for admission wait times, transit times to the receiving hospitals, and preoperative wait times in hours. Metrics based on means or medians were developed for these wait times.

A total of 163 patients met the inclusion criteria. The emergency department wait times before and after admission to the community hospitals were 1 hour and 2.5 hours, respectively. The transit times from the community hospitals, ranging from shorter to farther distances, to receiving hospitals were 40 minutes and 1 hour, respectively. The preoperative wait time for admitted and transferred patients was 12 hours.

Our study outlines a methodology for establishing wait time metrics that impact surgical timeliness for hip fracture patients within a rural healthcare system. We recommend conducting comparable studies with larger sample sizes across different healthcare systems.