Smaller hospitals best at hip fracture surgery

A new study shows that patients who undergo surgery due to hip fracture receive better treatment and have lower mortality if operated in smaller hospitals compared to larger ones. The study is conducted by researchers from Department of Clinical Epidemiology and colleagues.

“Our study shows that mortality is lower in smaller hospital wards than in larger ones. We can also see that the hospital stay is shorter and the treatment in general is better,” says PhD student at DCE Pia Kjær Kristensen, who is one of the researchers behind the study.

The study shows that mortality within 30 days after surgery was 13.2% among patients admitted to a high volume department while it was 10.5% in patients admitted to a smaller department. The results have recently been published in Medical Care.