‘Get It On Time’ – Improving time-critical medication delivery in a district general hospital

<h3></h3> Medication for patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is time-critical as missed doses can contribute to acute deterioration. Parkinson’s UK launched the ‘Get It On Time’ campaign in 2006 to improve in-hospital PD medication awareness and administration. Little progress has been made nationwide, with 58% of inpatients not receiving timely medication as of 2022. 43 patients at University Hospital of North Tees were identified as new admissions with PD between March-May 2022. Data collected to assess local performance included medication prescription, dose omission, delays to first dose and length of stay. 44% of patients had their medication prescribed differently to their home regimen. 68% of these were not justified by the clinical circumstances. Just 14% of patients received all PD medications on time during their admission. Most common causes of omitted doses were prescribing delays, doses missed in the emergency department and unavailability of medication. Ongoing interventions include the introduction of a PD passport incorporating multidisciplinary input, targeted education sessions for nursing teams, multimedia education for medical teams, standardising drug availability across the site and development of a time-critical medication Standardised Operating Procedure. The impact of these interventions is currently being measured and feedback collected, which will be presented and discussed.