Dr Robert Skelly
Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
United Kingdom
Does prompt delivery of medication to in-patients with Parkinson's decrease length of stay in hospital?
Parkinson's UK
16,057
15/02/2015
1
The main hypothesis that will be tested is that prompt administration of medications to hospital in-patients with Parkinson’s will facilitate recovery as measured by a reduced length of stay in hospital. Length of stay in hospital is a facet of medical care where small improvements in the delivery of clinical services may result in benefits both to the individuals (in terms of faster recovery) and the hospital (in terms of shorter length of stay resulting in cost savings that can be used to improve patient care elsewhere.) The data collection will use electronic drug charts that were introduced in the Royal Derby Hospital in 2012. Data will be collected for all patients with Parkinson’s who were admitted over a two year period with specific interest in the actual timing of delivery of levodopa and other Parkinson’s disease medications compared to the prescribed time. We will also collect data on the length of stay in hospital. Analysis will be by linear regression. Conservatively assuming that 400 individuals provide data for analysis, this would give us over 90% power to detect a difference of 2 days in length of stay between those who received their prescribed medication on time and those who did not, which would constitute a clinically important difference. We anticipate that the results of this study will be of interest to clinicians, nurses, pharmacists and managers who are involved in the provision of high quality care to patients with Parkinson’s.