Improving Referrals to a Fracture Liaison Service: Screening for Osteoporosis (0.25h)

This educational offering provides 0.25 CEU and was presented in the Clinical track. The course includes a PowerPoint (in PDF) and an MP4 video file from the presentation originally shared at the 14th National Doctors of Nursing Practice Conference at the Swissotel in Chicago, August 2021.

Samantha McDowell, DNP, APRN 
Dr. McDowell has been a professional nurse for 32 years and has a passion for the elderly population. The majority of her career has been in leadership and administrative positions in skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities. More recently she found an even more rewarding way to serve the elderly and other populations, as a Board-Certified Family Nurse Practitioner, where she has managed acute and chronic illnesses in a post-acute care setting. Dr. McDowell is a member of The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Theta Tau International, and the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.

Purpose
The purpose of this presentation is to provide an overview of a quality improvement project to improve the screening and referral process to a fracture liaison service (FLS). A FLS clinic provides coordinated care and is considered best practice in early identification of osteoporosis and prevention of secondary fractures. An orthopaedic practice in the southeastern United States had a FLS, but it was not being utilized effectively. The project was guided by the Plan-Do-Study-Act and increased referral to the FLS by 14% after the implementation of a custom alert button into the electronic health record.