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).