Team management of the elderly patient with hip fracture.

The management of 200 consecutive patients with hip fracture by a joint hospital and community team in Peterborough has shown that over half the patients could be discharged considerably earlier than is usual. The patients are cared for at home by the hospital-at-home nursing service and generally need much less nursing care than patients treated conventionally. In the first 10 months of the scheme 733 inpatient bed-days were saved and the average hospital stay of patients discharged home was reduced from 22.0 to 14.6 days.