Drogheda
At Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital (OLOL) in Drogheda, Ireland, managing fragility fracture care used to be a challenge. The system was overwhelmed and paper-based processes made it difficult for the FLS team to identify and follow up with patients at risk of fragility fractures. The elligible patients were identified through scattered means, coming in through text messages, emails, voicemails, phone calls, and word of mouth.
Patients who needed intervention weren’t always identified in time, and the workload on staff was immense. OLOL knew something had to change, so they turned to Pathpoint FLS, Open Medical’s digital Fracture Liaison Service (FLS) platform, to transform how patients at risk of fragility fractures are identified, assessed, and managed.
A system under pressure
OLOL relied on informal referral methods like text messages, emails, phone calls, voicemails, word of mouth, and paper-based workflows, making patient identification difficult.
In 2022, 71 fragility fracture patients were identified, below the estimated caseload of 1,127.
The lack of a centralised digital system meant patient management was labour-intensive, requiring significant manual effort for follow-ups.
Spine fractures, critical due to their high refracture rates, were also difficult to identify, with only 41 cases recorded.
In October 2023, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital transformed its fracture liaison service by implementing Pathpoint FLS, a fully digital, automated platform designed to streamline patient identification, optimise triage, and improve fracture care management.
Instead of manually tracking patients through fragmented records, Pathpoint FLS organises cases into structured worklists with real-time status tracking, ensuring no patient is missed. Automated patient questionnaires at 4 months and 12 months feed directly into FLS assessments, reducing admin burden and improving data accuracy.
But the biggest breakthrough was integrating Pathpoint FLS with OLOL’s existing tools—Pathpoint eTrauma and Pathpoint Virtual Fracture Assessment Clinic (VFAC). Now, when a patient on eTrauma or VFAC meets fragility fracture risk criteria,, the system automatically triggers an FLS assessment, eliminating delays and manual intervention.
Find out more about how Pathpoint FLS works.
The impact of digital transformation
From October 2023 to September 2024
patients identified compared to 71 the year prior
representing 95% of the estimated 2022 caseload and a 15x increase in patient identification.
hip fracture cases identified
exceeding 2022 projections by 124%.
spine fracture cases identified
up from 41 in 2022, critical for reducing re-fractures.
days average time to FLS assessment
well below the 90-day benchmark, with half of all assessments completed within 46 days.
referrals created
post-implementation, which addressed OLOL’s need for a more structured internal referral pathway to reduce reliance on informal processes.