Did you know? What can be done?
• For people over 80, spending 10 days in bed ages their
muscles by 10 years. The Let's Get Moving campaign aims to help prevent
deconditioning in frail older patients by encouraging them to:
• Just 24 hours of bed-rest reduces your muscle power by 2.5%
and not just in your arms and legs but in your heart and lungs. • Get up - spend less time on the bed and to eat meals whilst
sitting in a chair.
• Older adults living at home typically take 900 steps per day but
in hospital most patients only take 250 steps per day. • Get dressed - get changed into comfortable day clothes.
• Get moving - walk to the bathroom and regularly around the
ward.
Orange wrist
bands for
falls risk &
identification
Around 25 staff plus
staff from local aged
residential care facilities
gathered at Whakatāne
Hospital recently to hear
Dr Ian Sturgess from
Francis Health. He spoke
about frailty and the
importance of preventing
deconditioning in patients
and the potential effects on
acute patient flow.
Dr Ian Sturgess presents to EBOP Health
care providers.
Linking to E 3 Flow … Patients
admitted to the hospital
through ED who are at risk of
having a fall are now wearing
orange wrist bands. This
instantly indicates to staff as
they move to other parts of
the hospital that they may
need extra support to prevent
having a fall.
ED CNM Colleen MacGregor and ED
CNS Bronwyn Ives planning for Falls risk
identification in Whakatāne ED.
Improving care for
hip fracture patients
By Nicola Ward, Hip Fracture Coordinator and
Fracture Prevention Nurse.
Each year about 4,000 New Zealanders break
their hip. The cost of the event is enormous
for the individual and their family and also the
health system ($105 million).
Last year our DHB signed up to the Australian and New Zealand
Hip Fracture Registry (ANZHFR). The clinical registry collects
data on the care provided, and is designed to improve hip fracture
care across Australasia. Much of what happens in the acute
and rehabilitation settings impacts directly on the longer term
outcomes for the person with the fracture.
On top of my role as a Fracture Prevention Nurse, I’m the Hip
Fracture Coordinator for the ANZHFR; covering both Tauranga
and Whakatāne hospitals.
In this part time position, I cover about 185 primary hip fractures
a year at Tauranga Hospital and a further 30 in Whakatāne. More
recently NARS Coordinator Tracy Wilson has started working on
cases at Whakatāne Hospital
The ANZHFR collects data on each patient with a primary hip
fracture across hospital services including ED, theatre, pre and
postop and rehabilitation care. We also follow up with patients
at 30 and 120 days after their operation date. The data is then
uploaded and we can review how our care is against other DHBs
signed up to the ANZHFR and compare how we are doing, identify
areas for improvement and celebrate good work.
When I started working as a Hip Fracture Coordinator, I didn’t
realise the value that the follow-up phone call has for patients.
Hip Fracture Coordinator and Fracture Prevention Nurse Nicola Ward.
It made me realise we sometimes discharge patients after a big
operation and often long length of stay, with little or no follow up,
just a good-bye. I’ve found the follow up calls allows the patient to
feel valued and listened to. They are proud to tell me their post op
progress, such as stopping painkillers, walking again without aids
or even going out to do the grocery shop.
The ANZHFR has also highlighted a gap in our patients post bone
health medication, which is now been addressed through my other
role in the DHB’s Fracture Prevention service.
I really do love my ANZHRF role and making a difference to the
lives of hip fracture patients. Our first ANZHFR annual report is
due later in the year, no pressure.
For more information see www.anzhfr.org
7