A study of waiting time for surgery in elderly patients with hip fracture and subsequent in-patient hospital stay

OBJECTIVE: To establish whether increased waiting time to operation in elderly patients with hip fracture significantly affects postoperative time to discharge. METHODS: Combined prospective and retrospective analysis of theatre logbooks and in-patient data to determine the type, time and date of operation and subsequent in-patient stay. SETTING: A busy district general hospital in the South East Thames Valley area with changing availability of a dedicated trauma list. PATIENTS: 441 elderly patients undergoing hip surgery between May 1995 and March 1997. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Waiting time from booking of operation to surgery and length of postoperative hospital stay. RESULTS: Increased pre-operative wait for emergency hip surgery in elderly patients significantly increases postoperative stay. Roughly doubling pre-operative wait increases postoperative stay by 19% (P < 0.01).