Mount Sinai Implements Own the Bone® Program for Fragility Fracture Patients
Program provides fracture liaison service to better document, track, and benchmark individualized care
The Leni and Peter W. May Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has implemented the American Orthopaedic Association’s Own the Bone® program, joining more than 300 health care institutions nationwide to help better identify, evaluate, and treat patients who experience an osteoporosis- or low bone density-related fracture.
The program brings attention to the severe health implications of fragility fractures (broken bones that result from a fall from standing height or less) and the multi-faceted approach hospitals or clinics can incorporate to ensure these patients receive the most comprehensive care.
According to the Bone Health & Osteoporosis Foundation, up to 50 percent of all women and 25 percent of men over 50 will sustain a fragility fracture at some point in their lives. Studies show that patients who have had a fragility fracture are two to four times more likely to experience another fracture than those who have never had a fracture, yet fewer than 50 percent of Medicare patients receive recommended osteoporosis care following a fragility fracture.
Through the Own the Bone® program and its national web-based quality improvement registry, Mount Sinai now offers a fracture liaison service to help document, track, and benchmark care of fragility fracture patients. Through the service, a care coordinator such as a nurse or physician’s assistant will ensure that fragility fracture patients are identified, evaluated, and treated according to their specific needs.
Mount Sinai has also incorporated Own the Bone’s 10 prevention measures to improve patient care, including nutrition, physical activity and lifestyle counseling, pharmacotherapy recommendation and initiation (when appropriate), bone mineral density testing recommendation and initiation, and communication regarding patient risk factors and recommendations via physician referral and patient education letters.
“The Own the Bone program is a tremendous opportunity to better service our patients with a more individualized approach to fracture care,” Leesa M. Galatz, MD, Mount Sinai Professor and Chair, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said. “The department is proud to add yet another means of providing superior orthopedic care to our community by offering an extraordinary, personalized experience for individuals suffering from fragility fractures.”
“Wellness, independence, and quality of life are so closely tied to bone health, and unfortunately osteoporosis is often not appropriately addressed,” Own the Bone Program Coordinator Phoebe Ke, PA-C, MHA, CCD, said. “We have a wonderful opportunity to help patients work toward bone health and prevent fractures through our Own the Bone program, and I am honored to be part of our patients' bone health journeys.”
About the AOA
The American Orthopaedic Association, founded in 1887, is the oldest national orthopaedic association in the world. The AOA’s mission is to identify, develop, engage and recognize leadership to further the art and science of orthopaedics. For additional information about the AOA, visit www.aoassn.org. For additional information about Own the Bone, visit www.ownthebone.org.
About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the nation’s leading integrated academic health systems and one of the largest in the New York metropolitan area. Its comprehensive system includes seven hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, over 600 research and clinical laboratories, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and the Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing. Together, the Health System comprises approximately 48,000 employees, more than 9,000 physicians, and 8,600 nurses.
As a leading learning health system, Mount Sinai combines clinical expertise with scientific discovery to improve patient care while training the next generation of health care and biomedical leaders. The Health System provides care across every stage of life, from prenatal care through geriatrics, while advancing personalized medicine through artificial intelligence, data science, and biomedical research.
Mount Sinai is consistently recognized among the nation’s leading academic health systems for patient care, research, and education. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 1 in New York by Newsweek and No. 5 on the magazine’s World’s Best Hospitals list. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai ranks No. 11 among U.S. medical schools and No. 1 among freestanding medical schools for National Institutes of Health funding, reflecting the strength of its scientific enterprise and leadership in biomedical research.