Background: Medical comanagement entails a significant commitment of clinical resources with the aim of improving perioperative outcomes for patients admitted with hip fractures. To our knowledge, no national analyses have demonstrated whether patients benefit from this practice.
Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort analysis of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) targeted user file for hip fracture 2016-2017. Medical comanagement is a dedicated variable in the NSQIP. Propensity score matching was performed to control for baseline differences associated with comanagement. Matched pairs binary logistic regression was then performed to determine the effect of comanagement on the following primary outcomes: mortality and a composite endpoint of major morbidity.
Results: Unadjusted analyses demonstrated that patients receiving medical comanagement were older and sicker with a greater burden of comorbidities. Comanagement did not have a higher proportion of patients participating in a standardized hip fracture program (53.6% vs 53.7%; P > .05). Comanagement was associated with a higher unadjusted rate of mortality (6.9% vs 4.0%, odds ratio [OR] 1.79: 1.44-2.22; P < .0001) and morbidity (19.5% vs 9.6%, OR 2.28: 1.98-2.63; P < .0001). After propensity score matching was used to control for baseline differences associated with comanagement, patients in the comanagement cohort continued to demonstrate inferior mortality (OR 1.36: 1.02-1.81; P = .033) and morbidity (OR 1.82: 1.52-2.20; P < .0001).
Conclusions: This analysis does not provide evidence that dedicated medical comanagement of hip fracture patients is associated with superior perioperative outcomes. Further efforts may be needed to refine opportunities to modify the significant morbidity and mortality that persists in this population.