Clinical trial NCT01402609: Assessing the Efficacy of an Electronic Discharge Communication Tool
Official title: A Randomized Controlled Trial Assessing the Efficacy of an Electronic Discharge Communication Tool for Preventing Death or Hospital Readmission
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Other Diagnoses, Comorbidities, and Complications
Keywords: Continuity of care
Patient safety
Communication between acute and community care providers
Lead sponsor: Ward of the 21st Century
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
name: Alberta Health services
name: University of Calgary
First posted: 2011-07-26
Enrollment: 1399
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Brief summary: The transition between acute care and community care represents one of the most vulnerable periods in health care delivery, particularly as the complexity of inpatient populations increases. Two recent North American studies found an incidence of post-discharge adverse events between 19-23%, with adverse drug events accounting for 66-72% of these. The vulnerability of this period has been attributed mainly to a failure of care providers to adequately reconcile discrepancies between home medications and discharge medications, as well as a failure to transfer this and other important information about the hospitalization and discharge to community care providers. While discharge communication with the primary care physician has traditionally occurred via a handwritten or dictated summary, major deficits exist with respect to timeliness of information transfer and adequacy of content in discharge summaries.

Computer-enabled discharge communications can potentially avert such problems. This is particularly true for web-based solutions that do not require end users to acquire additional software/training to use them. The purpose of this research is to definitively assess the efficacy of a web-based seamless discharge communication tool that the Medical Ward of the 21st Century (W21C - see www.w21c.org) team in Calgary has developed through iterative consultation with multiple clinical stakeholders as well as patients/families. This tool has great potential to be implemented on a provincial level as well as across Canada and internationally because it operates on a web interface that does not confine its applicability to a single type of hospital information system.

The purpose of this research is to definitively assess the efficacy of the web-based discharge communication tool that our team has developed in partnership with Alberta Health Services. In doing so, our specific objective will be to answer the following research questions:

1. Is the seamless discharge communication tool efficacious with respect to reducing hospital readmission and mortality (at 3 months), as well as reducing adverse events and adverse drug events?
2. Does the seamless discharge communication tool transfer appropriate, complete, and accurate discharge information in a timely manner compared to traditional discharge communication?
3. Is the seamless discharge communication tool efficacious with respect to improving physician and patient satisfaction?

Detailed description: The vulnerability of the transition period has been attributed to three main factors. First, changes to patients'medication regimens during hospitalization are numerous, yet failure to reconcile discrepancies between admission and discharge is frequent. Second, the patient/family is required to take over care responsibilities at discharge and must often relay important information to the primary care physician. This can be particularly challenging if discharge information is poorly communicated, presented too rapidly, if instructions are verbal only, or if the patient has low literacy or low health literacy.Finally, crucial information is often not transferred between acute care physicians and community physicians.

Information about the hospitalization (such as medication changes, patient diagnoses, interventions,diagnostic findings, and necessary follow-up) is commonly transferred to the primary care physician via a discharge summary that is typically faxed or mailed. Unfortunately, deficits with respect to timeliness and/or complete failure to transmit are widespread. At the first post-discharge appointment, the discharge summary is unavailable to the primary care physician up to 75% of the time. This negatively impacts the continuity of care provided to many patients. When summaries are received, inconsistent content and inaccuracies are common. Acute care physicians, whether medical or surgical, often neglect to include diagnostic findings, treatment/hospital course, discharge medications, pending tests results, and whether the patient and family received counselling.

Computer-enabled discharge communications have potential to avert such problems. Such communication platforms can provide an immediate link between acute care and primary care physicians, and interfaces can be designed to ensure consistent information transfer. In addition, physicians in both settings have expressed preference for electronic discharge documents over hand written/dictated summaries with respect to clarity, comprehensiveness, and positive impacts on continuity of care.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* all patients being discharged from MTU at the Foothill Medical Centre (FMC)

Exclusion Criteria:

Patients will be excluded if the patient and/or family member decline consent; is under 18 years of age; cannot provide contact information; and/or family member lacks English proficiency and the team cannot communicate with them; has a research burden (enrolled in 2 other studies); is admitted under or has their acute care transferred to a clinical service other than the MTU; is not an Alberta resident; was previously enrolled in the study; is being discharged to hospice care; is transferred to another Hospital ("Rapid Transport"); is incoherent; or dies in hospital.

Primary outcomes:
measure: composite of death or readmission
timeFrame: 3 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: occurrence of post-discharge adverse events and adverse drug events at 1 month post discharge
timeFrame: 1 month post discharge
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Calgary
country: Canada
facility: Medical Teaching Unit, Foothills Medical Centre
state: Alberta
city: Calgary
country: Canada
facility: The ward of 21st Century (W21C) Foothills Medical Centre
state: Alberta
Study officials:
affiliation: Ward of the 21st Century
name: William Ghali, MD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Kripalani S, Jackson AT, Schnipper JL, Coleman EA. Promoting effective transitions of care at hospital discharge: a review of key issues for hospitalists. J Hosp Med. 2007 Sep;2(5):314-23. doi: 10.1002/jhm.228.
citation: van Walraven C, Seth R, Laupacis A. Dissemination of discharge summaries. Not reaching follow-up physicians. Can Fam Physician. 2002 Apr;48:737-42.
citation: Callen JL, Alderton M, McIntosh J. Evaluation of electronic discharge summaries: a comparison of documentation in electronic and handwritten discharge summaries. Int J Med Inform. 2008 Sep;77(9):613-20. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2007.12.002. Epub 2008 Feb 21.
citation: van Walraven C, Laupacis A, Seth R, Wells G. Dictated versus database-generated discharge summaries: a randomized clinical trial. CMAJ. 1999 Feb 9;160(3):319-26.
citation: Sevick LK, Santana MJ, Ghali WA, Clement F. Prospective economic evaluation of an electronic discharge communication tool: analysis of a randomised controlled trial. BMJ Open. 2017 Dec 14;7(12):e019139. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-019139.
citation: Okoniewska BM, Santana MJ, Holroyd-Leduc J, Flemons W, O'Beirne M, White D, Clement F, Forster A, Ghali WA. The Seamless Transfer-of-Care Protocol: a randomized controlled trial assessing the efficacy of an electronic transfer-of-care communication tool. BMC Health Serv Res. 2012 Nov 21;12:414. doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-12-414.