Gina L. Jones, DO
Section Chief, Headache; Director, Neurology Clinic; Program Director, Headache Medicine Fellowship; Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine; Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Kansas School of Medicine
Full Biography
Gina Jones, DO, Neurology, received a $26,000 2024-2025 Care Advancement/Quality Improvement grant from the Child Neurology Foundation for improving the patient care experience related to transition of care and care coordination for patients with movement disorders. The funding’s project period runs from October 25, 2024-September 1, 2025, and is being used for Dr. Jones’ project, “MOVE-ON: Movement Disorder Transition for Adolescents: Optimizing Navigation”.
The project is designed to redefine the current transition program and make it more specific to the needs of patients with movement disorders. To the team’s knowledge, no transition program exists specifically for patients with movement disorders.
With these funds, Dr. Jones and her team are using some recommendations that came from a 2023 Delphi survey given to members of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorders Society (MDS) to examine whether they help reduce disparities for adolescents with movement disorders when transitioning to adult care.
The team’s first goal is establishing a transition protocol for medically complex patients, focusing on those with movement disorders. This includes getting survey feedback from pediatric and adult movement specialists, patients, and their families with movement disorders.
“We want to create a transition model that involves a multidisciplinary team. We will include a provider, and nurse coordinator to manage each patient's complex social and healthcare needs. The nurse coordinator will manage each patient and their care needs, create a transition package for the adult provider, and make proper referrals so that these families will continue receiving the same resources and care from their adult provider. We will also help patients identify an adult provider with suitable knowledge about their movement disorder,” explained Dr. Jones.
The team is using their current protocol of transition of care by starting transition readiness at age 14, with the transition to adult care occurring between 18 and 21 years of age, depending on the patient's needs.
The team’s second goal is to create education for providers and the rest of the multidisciplinary care team. This consists of lunch and learns for the care team to provide information on the program's importance and the new protocol. Education regarding documentation of providers' transition of care will also be provided to ensure the data collected from the electronic medical records is accurate.
Co-investigators on the study include the following people from Neurology: Margo Simon, BSN, RN, CPN, Rose Gelineau-Morel, MD, Elizabeth Shaffer, APRN, and Ahmed Abdelmoity, MD, with Stephanie Horton, MHA, as Research Program Manager.