BACKGROUND: Timing of surgery remains a topic of debate for hip fracture treatment in the geriatric patient population. The quality indicator "early surgery" was implemented in 2014 at the Department of Trauma Surgery of the University Hospitals Leuven to enhance timely operative treatment. In this follow-up study, we aim to evaluate the performance of this quality indicator, the clinical outcomes, and room for improvement. METHODS: The charts of 1190 patients surgically treated for an acute hip fracture were reviewed between June 2017 and May 2022 at the University Hospitals Leuven. Primary endpoints were adherence to early surgery, defined as surgery within the next calendar day, and the evaluation of the reasons for deviating from this protocol. Secondary endpoints were length of stay (LOS)
intensive care unit (ICU) admission and length of ICU stay
mortality after 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, and 6 months
and 90-day readmission rate. Pearson's Chi-square test and Mann-Whitney U test were used for data analysis. RESULTS: One thousand eighty-four (91.1%) patients received early surgery versus 106 (8.9%) patients who received delayed surgery. The main reasons for surgical delay were the use of anticoagulants (33%), a general health condition not allowing safe surgery and/or existing comorbidities requiring workup prior to surgery (26.4%), and logistical reasons (17.9%). Patient delay and transfer from other hospitals were responsible for respectively 8.5% and 6.6% of delayed surgery. Early surgery resulted in a significantly shorter LOS and ICU stay (12 [8-25] vs. 18 [10-36] and 3 [2, 3, 4, 5, 6] vs. 7 [3-13] days, early vs. delayed surgery, respectively). No significant reduction was observed in ICU admission, mortality, and readmission rate. CONCLUSION: We have been able to maintain the early surgery hip fracture protocol in approximately 90% of the patients. Comorbidities and anticoagulant use were responsible for delayed surgery in the majority of the patients. Correct implementation of the existing protocol on anticoagulant use could lead to a one-third decrease in the number of delayed surgeries. Subsequently, since the LOS and ICU stay in the delayed surgery group were significantly longer, a further increase of early surgery will lower the current economic burden.