Journal of Advanced Nursing
Journal of Advanced Nursing
4 years ago

Impact of the Orthopaedic Nurse Practitioner role on acute hospital length of stay and cost-savings for patients with hip fracture: A retrospective cohort study

Michelle Sin, Kevin Murray, Amanda Towell, Sharon Pickles, Linda L. Coventry, Diane E. Twigg, Margaret Giles
Aims To compare acute hospital length of stay and cost-savings for patients with hip fracture before and after commencement of the Orthopaedic Nurse Practitioner and identify variables that increase length of stay in hospital. Background Globally, hip fractures are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Whilst the practical benefits of the Orthopaedic Nurse Practitioner have been anecdotally shown, an analysis showing the cost-saving benefits has yet to be published. Design A retrospective cohort study. Methods Data from two population-based cohorts (2010, 2013) of hip fracture patients aged ≥65 years were extracted from the electronic hospital database at a large Western Australian tertiary metropolitan hospital. Multivariate linear regression was used to model factors affecting length of stay in hospital. A simple economic analysis was undertaken and cost-savings were estimated. Results For comparison (n = 354) and intervention (n = 301) groups, average age was 84 years and over 70% were female. Analyses showed length of stay was shorter in 2013 compared with 2010 (4.4–5.3 days). Shorter length of stay was associated with type of procedure and surgery within 24-hr and longer length of stay was associated with co-morbid conditions of pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure, dementia, anaemia on admission and complications of delirium, urinary tract infection, myocardial infarction and pneumonia. The cost-savings to the hospital over one year was $354,483 and the net annual cost-savings per patient was $1,178. Conclusion Implementation of the Orthopaedic Nurse Practitioner role for care of hip fracture patients can reduce acute hospital length of stay resulting in important cost-savings.

Publisher URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/resolve/doi

DOI: 10.1111/jan.13330

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.