Scaling up for safety: standardising the lessons learnt from a hip fracture quality improvement programme
As part of the Health Foundation’s second scaling up improvement programme we provided coaching and advice to our colleagues at Northumbria Healthcare to enable the roll out of their HIP quality improvement programme (HIP QIP) to five NHS trusts across the UK.
Hip fractures are one of the most common and serious injuries in older people and can be fatal. Northumbria’s HIP QIP has been running at the trust for eight years and has long been recognised as a gold standard for hip fracture care. Mortality rates at the trust have significantly decreased and are now lower than the national average.
The scaling-up programme was led by Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, in partnership with the British Orthopaedic Association and Academic Health Science Network for the North East and Cumbria, with evaluation by the Royal College of Physicians.
The programme included establishing a multidisciplinary audit framework; prioritising additional nutrition for patients with hip fracture; implementing a surgical care bundle, pain block in A&E and surgery within 36 hours; and carrying out root cause analysis of any deaths.
At the time of writing the programme had saved 119 lives across the collaborative, reduced length of stay in hospital by two days and enabled 100 extra patients to return to their own homes instead of a nursing or residential home. Five nutritional assistants were recruited and over the time of the project 29,000 extra meals were provided.
Find out more at about The Health Foundation’s programme here: https://www.health.org.uk/improvement-projects/scaling-up-for-safety-standardising-the-lessons-learnt-from-a-hip-fracture
Check out this infographic which highlights the positive impact the programme has had on patients:
