Parkinson's disease: Improving person-centered care coordination by interdisciplinary communication and teamwork with patients: A qualitative mixed method study

Background: People with Parkinson's disease (PwPD) have complex healthcare pathways (HCPW) and expect person-centred interdisciplinary care coordination. Purpose: Our study aimed to provide insight to patients' and healthcare professionals' experiences in that complex HCPW and to suggest solutions to improve care coordination by interdisciplinary teamwork. Methods: A qualitative mixed method study was conducted among fourteen healthcare professionals (HCP), involved in the healthcare pathway and eight PwPD. First, a participative, ethnological field study took place in a primary care setting and a Parkinson expert centre to shadow the HCP in their real-life work setting. Subsequently, the PwPD were met face-to-face to inquire their experiences of their own HCPW. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed with Nvivo11 (R) software. The HCP's and PwPDs' situations were cross-checked. Results: Discrepancies between their conceptions of care coordination were revealed. PwPDs' needs and expectations towards person-centeredness were not met by HCP, who were not working together but were competing. PwPDs did not assign an exclusive central place to any of the involved HCP but expected their Family Physician to coordinate them. Conclusion: Person-centred care coordination requires interdisciplinary teamwork which could be promoted through a better interdisciplinary communication and PD-specific training programmes.

Automated summary

The study revealed discrepancies between patients' needs for person-centered care coordination and the actual services provided by healthcare professionals, who were more competitive rather than collaborative. Patients tended to expect their Family Physician to coordinate the different healthcare professionals instead of assigning a central role to any of them.