Objective: To evaluate the changes in perceived quality of care for people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) among health professionals (HPs) in Luxembourg at one year after initial implementation of the ParkinsonNet care concept.

Background: The ParkinsonNet care concept has improved quality of PD care in the Netherlands.[1,2] Two vital elements of this care concept are 1) the training of a dedicated group of HPs involved in PD care (improving expertise) and 2) building multidisciplinary networks (improving collaboration). In the past two years, the ParkinsonNet care concept has been implemented in Luxembourg.

Method: After the installation of a national project team in Luxembourg, the Dutch ParkinsonNet team offered them tailored support in building their ParkinsonNet and provided the first entry level course for allied HPs. Before the training and after one year, participants completed a questionnaire about their perceived expertise, work satisfaction, multidisciplinary collaboration and familiarity with other treatment options on a 5-point scale. Scores were dichotomized into low to moderate (1-3) vs. high (4-5) and pre-post differences were tested with Fisher’s Exact test.

Results: Complete pre- and post questionnaires were available from 37 allied HPs. The percentage of HPs that scored high experienced expertise increased from 11% to 32% (p = 0.03) and for high job satisfaction this increased from 5% to 30% (p = 0.01). High familiarity with the treatment options delivered by other HPs improved for all disciplines, ranging from the lowest of 8% (options PD nurse) to the highest 39% (options physiotherapy) at the start, rising to 17% (options PD nurse) and the highest of 60% (options speech therapy) after one year. High satisfaction with multidisciplinary collaboration rose from 24% to 30% (p = 0.79).

Conclusion: Implementation of the ParkinsonNet care concept improves experienced expertise and work satisfaction of HPs. Also familiarity with treatments by other HPs increased, but improvement in multidisciplinary collaboration after one year is still insignificant. This pattern of change is similar to the early development of ParkinsonNet in the Netherlands and underlines that improving multidisciplinary collaboration in the care for people with PD takes a longer time.

References: 1. Nijkrake MJ, Keus SH, Overeem S, et al. The ParkinsonNet concept: development, implementation and initial experience. Mov Disord 2010; 25: 823-29. 2. Bloem BR, Munneke M. Revolutionising management of chronic disease: the ParkinsonNet approach. BMJ 2014;348:g1838.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/implementation-of-the-parkinsonnet-care-concept-shows-better-expertise-and-work-satisfaction-of-health-professionals-but-improvement-of-multidisciplinary-collaboration-takes-longer-than-one-year/