Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center
Own the Bone® Case Study
By William B. Macaulay, Jr., MD
April 2009
Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center uses a specialist from the
Bone and Metabolic Disease unit to assist in counseling patients on
Calcium and Vitamin D, Fall Prevention, and Exercise.
The Bone and Metabolic Disease specialist receives a list of
potential patients and reviews their medical histories, labs,
radiology reports and biopsy reports. If the patient is
determined to have had a fragility fracture, the specialist meets
with the patient and the family to provide education on the
disease, its treatment, and its prevention. Additional
consultation from the Endocrine Service also ensures proper
pharmacotherapy treatment. Each patient receives a
customizable system-generated letter from the Own the Bone registry
that further explains osteoporosis. Columbia chose to
customize their patient letter to reflect the resources and
services offered at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. The
Bone and Metabolic Disease specialist also provides the patient
with calcium supplements and places fall prevention stickers on
patient charts.
Key attributes to Columbia's success are:
- Personnel who can identify fragility fractures for immediate
intervention
- Immediate intervention via patient education and/or endocrine
consult for in-house treatmentCommunication with treatment teams
via face-to-face or electronic (Orthopaedic Service List or
Electronic Charts)
- Stressing importance of in-house treatment for diagnosis of
osteoporosis/penia
