Abstract

Introduction:

A multidisciplinary team (MDT) clinic was introduced at Sunderland Hospital for patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) in 2019, leading to a reduction in hospital attendance rates. The MDT clinic enables PD patients to consult with a geriatrician, a specialist pharmacist for PD, and a physiotherapist, allowing for an early assessment of mobility and side effects from PD medications. We wished to evaluate and then improve patient experience at the MDT Parkinson’s clinic.

Method/ results:

We evaluated patient experience by surveying 28 patients who attended the MDT Parkinson’s clinic and asked whether their experience with different MDT members was helpful and if they had any suggestions for improvement. Patient experience was largely positive, with 93% of PD patients finding the clinic helpful, and only a handful (12%) offering suggestions for improvement, which included the clinic running on time and offering a hot beverage. However, 44% of patients missed their time-critical Parkinson’s medications in clinic due to not having access to water, leaving their medicines at home, or forgetting to take them.

As a result, we implemented several changes to remind patients to take their medication. These included adding a line to the patient’s clinic letter asking patients to bring their medication with them, ensuring patients have access to water, and reminding patients to take their medication via staff encouragement and a poster in the outpatient department.

We then re-surveyed 19 patients to assess if our interventions improved medication compliance in the PD MDT clinic.

Conclusion:

Most patients had a positive experience at the MDT clinic; however, some patients forgot to take their time-critical PD medications that were due during the clinic visit. To allow accurate assessment of patients' symptoms, PD medications should be taken promptly. After implementing changes, medication compliance in the PD MDT clinic improved from 56% to 100%.