What You Need To Know
- The Parkinson’s Foundation Hospital Care Recommendations include:
- Order all Parkinson’s medications in a custom fashion, according to patients’ at-home regimen
- Administer medications are administered within 15 minutes or patients’ at-home regimen, without exception
- Eliminate potentially harmful medication events, particularly those of dopamine-blocking medication, agents for pain, and sedatives
- Mobilize all people with Parkinson’s three times a day, if clinically appropriate, and under supervision
- Screen with dysphagia of all people with Parkinson’s within 24 hours, including measures to minimize the risk of aspiration pneumonia, if needed
- Many of these recommendations are already happening at HMH and further implementation across our network is underway.
Examples of some of the protocols Parkinson’s patients will experience include:
- Development of flags that alert any provider to the diagnosis of PD.
- Customized time-based carbidopa/levodopa medication schedule.
- A nursing PD care plan was developed to supplement and support educational efforts to reduce risk for hospitalized patients with Parkinson’s Disease.
Hackensack Meridian Health is just one of three health systems nationwide to work with the Parkinson’s Foundation in determining new care recommendations for patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD), based in part on what’s already been implemented throughout the network with the guidance of experts at the Hackensack Meridian Neuroscience Institute.
The other health systems consulted on the project include Henry Ford Health, University of Florida Health, along with consulting firm Manatt Health.