Clinical trial NCT03402763: Intervention to Promote Advance Care Planning for Older Adults in the Emergency Department
Official title: Intervention to Promote Advance Care Planning for Older Adults in the Emergency Department
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Emergency Medicine
Advance Care Planning
Keywords: Advance care planning
Older adults
Emergency department
Lead sponsor: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2018-01-18
Enrollment: 42
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 65
Standard ages: OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: Participants will (1) be given either a short informational handout on the process and choices involved in advanced care planning or (2) be shown a less 6 minute video describing CPR, breathing tube placement and mechanical breathing support in addition to the general process of advanced care planning.
Primary purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Brief summary: There is an urgent need to increase advance care planning among older adults in order to ensure that patients receive care of the end of life that is consistent with their values and preferences. Emergency departments (EDs) provide an opportunity to reach a large proportion of older adults who have not yet completed advance care planning at a time when they are likely to recognize the need for such planning. The purpose of this pilot is to examine the potential of a video-supported intervention initiated during the emergency department visit to promote advance care planning.

Detailed description: The overarching goal of this project is to understand the impact of an ED-initiated intervention on the promotion of advance care planning (ACP) among older adults. Participants are given either a short informational handout on the process and choices involved in ACP or watch a 6-minute video about ACP. The video describes cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), breathing tube placement, and mechanical breathing support in addition to the general process of ACP. Following the video, patients in the intervention will also have an email sent to their primary care provider. The email will inform the primary care provider that the patient has watched a video about ACP, include a brief synopsis of the video, and provide instructions as to how to document the patient's preferences in the hospital's electronic health record in a way that will be accessible to other providers. Outcomes will include documentation of end-of-life care preferences in the electronic health records and patient-reported conversation with their provider as well as conversations with loved ones.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Ability to provide informed consent
* Ability to communicate in English
* Age 65-79 years with a serious medical illness: (1) Established diagnosis of metastatic cancer, advanced heart failure, chronic obstructive lung disease, end stage liver disease, end stage renal disease, (2) Unable to walk or requires human assistance with walking, (3) Two hospitalizations within the last 6 months
* Age 80 years or older

Exclusion Criteria:

* Critically ill (emergency severity index = 1)
* Cognitively impaired based on Six Item Screener \< 4 or lack the capacity to consent
* Currently enrolled in hospice or comfort care program
* No working phone number
* Non English speaker

Primary outcomes:
measure: Documentation of end-of-life preferences in the electronic health record
timeFrame: 3 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Conversation with Regular Provider
timeFrame: 3 months
measure: Conversation with Loved One
timeFrame: 3 months
Other outcomes:
measure: CPR and Intubation Preferences
timeFrame: 3 months
measure: CPR Knowledge
timeFrame: 3 months
Locations:
Study officials:
affiliation: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
name: Timothy F Platts-Mills, MD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: