Quality Care Assessment of Parkinson's Disease at a Tertiary Medical Center

The purpose of this study was to determine the level of care of Parkinson's disease patients based on the 10 American Academy of Neurology quality measures. We reviewed 1,367 charts and final analysis was completed on 123 subjects. A total of 1,461 outpatient neurology visits from 33 neurologists were reviewed and 544 were included in the final analysis. Out of all 10 quality measures ( 13 individual questions addressed), annual review of Parkinson's medications was the most frequently documented ( 97.2%) and annual review of safety issues appropriate to the patient's stage of disease was the least frequently documented item ( 7.2%). Movement disorders specialists recorded significantly more items than other neurologists ( 4.7 +/- 2.86 vs 3.3 +/- 1.97, p = .0437); the provider with the highest number of items addressed was a movement disorders nurse practitioner ( 8.22 out of 13). None of the patient characteristics influenced the rates of documentation of the 10 quality measures. The wide variation of documentation rates could be addressed by comprehensive standardized templates to be reviewed and updated at each visit.