Abstract
Title: Bone health assessment audit cycle at Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth (Audit ID 5474)
Background: Conducted in the Department of General Internal Medicine. Our focus group was elderly patients, especially women aged 65 and above and men 75 years and above as per NICE guidelines since these patients should have their bone health assessment done ideally.
Local problems: Osteoporosis is very common affecting approximately 3 million people. Over 5,00,000 fragility fracture occurs in the UK each year. Our audit aimed to find the percentage of patients who underwent bone health assessment and got bone protection treatment appropriately, thus checking our compliance with NICE guidelines. Hence keeping in line with patient safety.
Methods: A total of 45 patients’ data was collected from the medical wards in both the audit and re-audit. Data was collected from the patient’s case notes, previous clinical documents and medication charts. A questionnaire was used which entailed patient details, risk factors for osteoporosis and whether or not a bone health assessment had been done.
Interventions: We identified patients at risk of osteoporosis. Performed BHA with FRAX score calculation. Started them on appropriate treatment based on NOGG 2021 guidelines. Additionally, a teaching session was held after each audit to implement changes in the department and raise awareness about the importance of bone health assessment.
Results: The first audit showed that only 29 out of 45 patients (64%) had their assessment done. 41 patients (91%) had their assessment done in the re-audit showing a significant improvement of 26%.
Conclusions- Bone health is often overlooked and affects millions of people across the UK with a high risk of mortality and morbidity, affecting patients’ quality of life. Based on the comparative analysis, 26% more patients benefitted from the completed audit cycle.