How do geriatricians improve outcomes after hip fracture?

Jenny Neuburger is a Senior Research Analyst at the Nuffield Trust  (@NuffieldTrust) and a Visiting Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. She and her co-authors have recently published research in Age and Ageing journal.

We have just published a paper showing that geriatrician involvement in hip fracture care can improve patient outcomes.  Patients treated on wards with higher numbers of geriatrician hours tended to have lower mortality within the 30 days after presentation.

We measured geriatrician hours worked in orthopaedic departments using data collected via the National Hip Fracture Database annual survey each year from 2010 to 2013 for English hospitals.  Over this period, geriatrician hours increased from 1.5 to 4.0 hours per patient, reflecting investments made in response the financial incentives introduced under the Best Practice Tariff scheme.