Mixed Methods Study Web-based Life Support Decision Aid

Patients and families want to be involved in healthcare decisions. When the decision-making process does not engage older patients and their families, the care provided does not match patient preferences or meet their needs. Healthcare teams can collaborate to support patients and families facing difficult healthcare decisions, such as decisions about the use of technology used to keep a person alive when they are critically ill. Tools called patient decision aids are used in many health care settings to help patients and families understand their options and figure out the benefits and harms of a treatment to decide what is right for them. The healthcare team can make sure that patients understand the information provided, give them opportunities to ask questions, and help them talk more about the decision with others. This research study is trialing a web based patient decision aid class of intervention. It is anticipated that 120 hospitalized, seriously ill, older adult patients/ families and their healthcare professionals will be recruited. The study will determine if the intervention can improve dialogue about whether life sustaining technology for seriously ill older patients. The findings will contribute to what is already known about overcoming challenges to involving patients and families with a goal of keeping patients and families at the centre of decisions about their health.

A concurrent mixed method study of a life support decision aid (eLSDA) intends to prepare hospitalized, seriously ill older adult patients and their families to participate in shared decision-making. The study includes 1) randomized controlled trial and 2) a qualitative (naturalistic observation) study. The experimental study compares a convenience cohort of participants who receive usual care (n=60 patients or patient/surrogate pairs) to a cohort of participants who receive the intervention (n=60 patients or patient/surrogate pairs). The investigators intend to measure a) knowledge of life-sustaining technologies, b) clarity of values, c) congruence between documented physician's orders and patient choice, d) decisional conflict, and e) quality of communication. For the intervention group only, investigators will measure comprehensibility and acceptability of the eLSDA. The observational qualitative study derived from naturalistic observation will involve participant observation to examine dialogue about life support between hospitalized, seriously ill older adult patients, families and their healthcare professionals. Quantitative and qualitative data will be collected to better understand the comprehensibility, acceptability, usability, feasibility and impact of the eLSDA used in routine clinical practice.

Questionnaires, patient/family/physician discussions and web based tool viewing will be completed in a hospital setting. The investigator will administer pre-intervention questionnaires to the participants, which will take approximately 15 minutes. Participants will then be randomized to groups, and be invited to use the web based eLSDA or usual care materials on a laptop computer or tablet (30 minutes). This will be followed by post-intervention questionnaires in a second interview (15 minutes). Physicians and nurses/social workers will be asked to complete a survey to examine the barriers to discussions about goals of care (15 minutes). The investigator will also fill out the chart abstraction tool after the participants give consent.

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

* Potential users of eLSDA, which are those who are hospitalized, seriously ill, older patients, their families, and their health care providers.
* Age 55 + with one or more of the following diseases:

  1. Chronic obstructive lung disease
  2. Congestive heart failure
  3. Cirrhosis
  4. Cancer
  5. End-stage dementia
  6. Renal failure
* Any patient 70 + admitted to the hospital from the community because of an acute medical or surgical condition.
* Any patient 55 - 69 years of age admitted to the hospital, who has high likelihood of death in the next 6 months, in the opinion of the treating physician.

Exclusion Criteria:

* People who are not hospitalized or do not have family members that are hospitalized and are not a potential user of the eLSDA.