The Appointment of a Huntington's Disease Nurse Specialist has Reduced Admission Rate and Improved Admission Quality

Abstract

We aimed to determine if the appointment of a Huntington's disease (HD) nurse specialist has influenced inpatient admission rates and admission quality at Auckland Hospital. We collated HD inpatient admission data for the 32 months before and after her appointment and compared the quality of cognition, mood, speech/swallowing and safety assessments between admissions where the nurse was and was not involved. After the appointment of the HD nurse there was a 51% reduction in average monthly HD admission rates (p = 0.0009). HD admissions specifically related to HD decreased by 54% (p = 0.005). There was also an improvement in the quality of admissions.