Delayed Admission Time and Its Reason in Patients with Geriatric Hip Fracture

Abstract

Purpose: Geriatric hip fractures are common. Surgical treatment is generally required to achieve a good quality of life. It was reported that a delayed time from injury to treatment leads to poor outcomes. We aimed to determine the time interval from injury to hospital admission in patients with geriatric hip fractures and explore the reasons for delay. Methods: Information on geriatric hip fracture patients who received treatment at our hospital from November 2016 to October 2020 was extracted from medical records. The average delay time was analyzed and reported. The reasons for delay were collected from patients who were not referred from other hospitals and had a time interval from injury to admission of more than 24 h. Results: The median time interval was 0.38 days, and 127 (32%) visited the hospital more than 24 h later. In patients not referred from other hospitals, the most common cause of delay was that patients overlooked the possibility of bone fractures (58%). Other reasons included unavailable transportation (20%), missed diagnosis from other hospitals (11%), inability to afford the transportation cost (7%), and inability to talk and/or caregivers did not notice the injury (4%). Conclusions: Almost one-third of geriatric hip fracture patients had a time from injury to admission of more than 24 h. Knowing the reason for delay and determining a solution to minimize this time interval may improve treatment quality. This information demonstrates that public and healthcare providers should pay attention to elderly patients with a history of fall injury.