Improving Medication Management and Education of Parkinson Disease in Hospital Settings: Patricia Clark, CNP

WATCH TIME: 5 minutes

"I think one of the biggest things I've learned in this study is that 100% of everyone has the patient's care and the best interest of the patient at heart, and so people are really receptive."

A relatively new concept, the Cleveland Clinic (CCF)’s Parkinson’s Inpatient Program implements system and patient-level interventions to enhance recovery for patients with Parkinson disease (PD). At the enterprise level of the program, modifications were made to electronic health records, including best practice alerts and notifications for PD contraindicated medications. Hospital-level interventions included creating a PD inpatient census, establishing a dedicated PD consult team, providing clinician education, changing PD medication stocking and administration practices, and updating Speech Therapy documentation templates.

A recent study showed that the CCF's Parkinson's Inpatient Program was an efficient and effective way to identify and prevent or correct common clinical errors that could lead to poor outcomes among hospitalized patients with PD.¹ In the analysis, all charts of patients with PD admitted at CCF's Main Campus and Fairview hospitals were prospectively pulled into a census utilizing a custom EHR tool starting in January 2023. After confirmation of PD diagnosis, researchers followed the patient’s charts throughout the admission. Authors monitored their charts for PD contraindicated medications, deviations from home PD medication regimen, worsening of motor and non-motor symptoms, and other complications.

These data were presented at the 3rd Annual Advanced Therapeutics in Movement and Related Disorders (ATMRD) Congress, held by the PMD Alliance from June 22-25, 2024, by lead author Patricia Clark, CNP, and colleagues, with additional outcomes that will be analyzed in the future. Clark, a nurse practitioner of the Center for Neurological Restoration at the Cleveland Clinic, sat down with NeurologyLive^® in an interview at the meeting to discuss the primary goals of the intervention program. She also talked about how the study aimed to address the issue of medication timing for patients with PD in the hospital setting and shared some of the feedback that healthcare providers gave regarding the intervention program.

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REFERENCES
1. Clark PA, Brooks A, Fernandez HH, et al. Improving the Quality and Safety of Care for Hospitalized Patients with Parkinson's Disease. Presented at: ATMRD; June 22-25, 2024; Washington, DC.