Hip fracture outcome recording and geographic equality

Hip fracture is a serious event in the lives of older people with around one in five individuals dying in the first year after their injury and many more losing their independence. Currently in Ireland, little is known about how people recover in the longer-term after hip fracture and many do not receive routine follow-up. In the last six years much work has been done to improve the care that people with hip fracture get in Irish hospitals including making sure they get to surgery as quickly as possible and that they have relevant tests and treatments. The Irish Hip Fracture Database is a national initiative that oversees and leads this work. We do not have information to show however, that these improvements are making a difference to the lives of people with hip fracture after they leave hospital.

This project will support hospitals to begin recording this information as part of usual care. We will build on previous work carried out in Ireland and the UK to identify the best ways of following up patients with hip fracture. We will get input from persons who have experienced hip fractures and family members to do this. We will explore whether people who live in different areas of the country are getting equal standards of care in hospital after hip fracture and will look at reasons for differences that we find. We will develop new ways to make comparisons between hospitals as fair as possible by accounting for differences in the patients that they treat.

This project will support the Irish Hip Fracture Database to focus improvements to areas in Ireland that need them most. It will also ensure that decision-makers focus on improving outcomes that matter to older people including quality of life, pain and ability to live independently

Award Date

26 June 2020

Award Value

€214,412.00

Principal Investigator

Dr Mary Walsh

Host Institution

University College Dublin

Scheme

ARPP 2020