Report of first year's operation of an ortho-geriatric service.

An ortho-geriatric service operated by Bundoora Extended Care Centre and Preston and Northcote Community Hospital was established in 1991 to improve rehabilitative care and discharge planning of elderly hip fracture patients. 123 patients were treated during the first year of the service's operation. There was a 25 per cent reduction in the acute hospital length of stay, an increased proportion of patients discharged home and a decreased need for post-acute rehabilitation in comparison to figures for 1989, leading to a substantial reduction in the total number of bed-days occupied in the hospital system as a whole by hip fracture patients. An ortho-geriatric service is an effective means of helping to improve both patient and hospital centred outcomes for a condition which will be seen ever more commonly in the future.