NBHC Population Health
August 07, 2018
A study in CMAJ suggests mortality rates spike when patients with a hip fracture wait longer than two days for surgery. Eighty-seven percent of people in that situation undergo a procedure within 48 hours. The research determines the following 30-day rates of mortality based on how long it takes to have surgery for a broken hip:
- Day of admission: 49 deaths per 1,000 surgeries;
- Day two of hospitalization: 48 deaths per 1,000 surgeries;
- Day three of hospitalization: 57 deaths per 1,000 surgeries; and
- After day three of hospitalization: 69 deaths per 1,000 surgeries.
The study concludes that seniors undergoing a hip fracture procedure should have surgery as soon as they're medically stable, given the correlation between treatment time and mortality.