Hackensack University Medical Center Research on Mortality in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease Admitted for COVID-19

EMR review evaluating hospitalized patient outcomes during the pandemic’s first wave

Researchers at Hackensack Meridian Neuroscience Institute at Hackensack University Medical Center are investigating whether patients with Parkinson’s disease experienced higher mortality than other patients when hospitalized for COVID-related causes during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hooman Azmi, M.D., director of the Division of Functional and Restorative Neurosurgery at the Hackensack Meridian Neuroscience Institute at Hackensack University Medical Center, and associate professor of Neurosurgery at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, who is leading the research, explained that when hospitalized for any reason, individuals with Parkinson’s disease are prone to poorer-than-average outcomes. Often, this is the result of disruptions in their medication regimen.

This Electronic Medical record (EMR) review across the Hackensack Meridian Health system is evaluating outcomes related to COVID hospital care specifically.

“As we look at the data, we think we will see that people with Parkinson’s disease are more fragile and susceptible to the negative impact of many things,” Dr. Azmi said of the COVID-19 EMR review.

Often medications to manage Parkinson’s symptoms are taken every 2-3 hours, and even a 15-minute delay can put a patient at risk for worsening symptoms, leading to aphasia and falls, as well as increased length of stay and complications. Hospital decisions to administer substitute medications or add new medications that interfere with Parkinson’s medications also cause negative outcomes for individuals with Parkinson’s disease.

This project builds on a decade of EMR-based Parkinson’s disease outcomes research at Hackensack University Medical Center. This body of research has helped influence clinical efforts to establish and refine protocols and care pathways applicable for patients with Parkinson’s disease regardless of their reason for hospital admission.

Personalized in-hospital medication distribution plans based on patient and caregiver in-take interviews can better match medication administration to the home regimen they were following prior to hospitalization — and improve outcomes.

This is important, Dr. Azmi said, because most of the 300,000 annual hospitalizations of individuals with Parkinson’s disease are due to unrelated conditions, such as a heart attack, fall, joint replacement or other elective surgery, and Parkinson’s disease is not the primary care focus.

Dr. Azmi and his team continually track outcomes for hospitalized patients with Parkinson’s, which are reviewed at monthly meetings for clinical improvement opportunities.

Learn more about neurological innovations happening at Hackensack University Medical Center.