School of Medicine and Health Sciences Poster Presentations
Osteoporosis and fracture reduction in the primary care setting at GW MFA
Document Type
Poster
Keywords
osteoporosis; screening
Publication Date
Spring 2017
Abstract
Osteoporosis is a disorder characterized by deterioration in bone mass and bone architecture, leading to bone fragility and a predisposition to fracture. Among older patients, hip osteoporotic fractures are a major cause of morbidity, mortality, and health care costs. Currently, osteoporosis results in over 1.5 million fractures per year in the United States. With the aging of the population, the rate of fracture is expected to increase by 48% in the next 25 years, making the current fracture rate rise from 1.5 million to greater than 3 million fractures in the United States. Most osteoporotic fractures occur in women, primarily due to postmenopausal estrogen deficiency, leading to increased trabecular bone resorption. With osteoporosis becoming an increasingly significant public health burden, it is critically important to identify and treat at-risk patients.
The focus of our QI project is to improve the rate of osteoporosis screening in the primary care setting for women equal to or greater than the age of 65, in accordance with the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations. Specifically, we aim to increase the percentage of screening dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan orders by a total of 10% for female patients age 65 or greater in the primary care setting through the use of education.
Our initial PDSA cycles focused on collecting baseline data for two cohorts of residents to determine the percentage of patients in our study population who have existing or new DXA scan orders. Among the two cohorts of residents, we found a significant variability in the percentage of DXA scan orders (53% and 82.5%, respectively). Interventions included providing verbal reminders as well as email reminders and educational material regarding screening guidelines. In one of the resident cohorts, we see a 3% increase in percentage of new or existing DXA scan orders for a given week compared to baseline.
With future PDSA cycles, we intend to incorporate education in the form of oral presentations, reminders, and encourage the use of documentation templates among resident cohorts with a low percentage of DXA scan orders.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Open Access
1
Osteoporosis and fracture reduction in the primary care setting at GW MFA
Osteoporosis is a disorder characterized by deterioration in bone mass and bone architecture, leading to bone fragility and a predisposition to fracture. Among older patients, hip osteoporotic fractures are a major cause of morbidity, mortality, and health care costs. Currently, osteoporosis results in over 1.5 million fractures per year in the United States. With the aging of the population, the rate of fracture is expected to increase by 48% in the next 25 years, making the current fracture rate rise from 1.5 million to greater than 3 million fractures in the United States. Most osteoporotic fractures occur in women, primarily due to postmenopausal estrogen deficiency, leading to increased trabecular bone resorption. With osteoporosis becoming an increasingly significant public health burden, it is critically important to identify and treat at-risk patients.
The focus of our QI project is to improve the rate of osteoporosis screening in the primary care setting for women equal to or greater than the age of 65, in accordance with the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations. Specifically, we aim to increase the percentage of screening dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan orders by a total of 10% for female patients age 65 or greater in the primary care setting through the use of education.
Our initial PDSA cycles focused on collecting baseline data for two cohorts of residents to determine the percentage of patients in our study population who have existing or new DXA scan orders. Among the two cohorts of residents, we found a significant variability in the percentage of DXA scan orders (53% and 82.5%, respectively). Interventions included providing verbal reminders as well as email reminders and educational material regarding screening guidelines. In one of the resident cohorts, we see a 3% increase in percentage of new or existing DXA scan orders for a given week compared to baseline.
With future PDSA cycles, we intend to incorporate education in the form of oral presentations, reminders, and encourage the use of documentation templates among resident cohorts with a low percentage of DXA scan orders.
Comments
Poster to be presented at GW Annual Research Days 2017.