A Needs-focused Palliative Care Intervention for Older Adults in ICUs (PCplanner)

Duke University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Aging; Critical Illness; Informal Caregivers; Care Delivery Model; Psychological Distress; Palliative Care

Treatments: Behavioral: PCplanner

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT04414787

R01AG058915 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Pro00101745

Details and patient eligibility

About

The quality of intensive care unit (ICU)-based palliative care is highly variable, particularly for the 2 million older adults admitted annually to ICUs. To address these care delivery barriers among older ICU patients, a mobile app platform called PCplanner (Palliative Care planner) was developed. PCplanner automates the identification of high-risk patients (e.g., dementia, declining health status, poor functioning) by directly capturing data from electronic health record (EHR) systems, cultivates family engagement with supportive information and a digital system for self-report of actual needs, and facilitates the delivery of care to those with a high burden of need by coordinating collaboration between ICU teams and palliative care specialists.

150 patients, 150 family caregivers, and 75 physicians from academic and community settings will be enrolled in a RCT designed to test the efficacy of PCplanner-augmented collaborative palliative care vs usual care. Family caregiver and clinician experiences will be explored using mixed methods to understand intervention mechanisms as well as implementation barriers within diverse case contexts. The key hypothesis is that compared to usual care, PCplanner will reduce family caregivers' unmet needs and psychological distress, increase the frequency of goal concordant treatment among older adult patients, and reduce hospital length of stay.

Full description

The quality of intensive care unit (ICU)-based palliative care is highly variable, particularly for the 2 million older adults admitted annually to ICUs. However, improving care quality on a broad scale with the efficient delivery of patient-centered, need-targeted palliative care is challenging because of logistical and technological barriers. To address these care delivery barriers among older ICU patients, a mobile app platform called PCplanner (Palliative Care planner) was developed. PCplanner automates the identification of high-risk patients (e.g., dementia, declining health status, poor functioning) by directly capturing data from electronic health record (EHR) systems, cultivates family engagement with supportive information and a digital system for self-report of actual needs, and facilitates the delivery of care to those with a high burden of need by coordinating collaboration between ICU teams and palliative care specialists. In pilot comparison to a standard palliative care control, the intervention reduced unmet needs, psychological distress, and length of stay and increased goal concordant care, communication, and hospice utilization.

While these data are compelling, an efficacy evaluation of PCplanner is needed. Therefore, 150 patients, 150 family caregivers, and 75 physicians will be enrolled from academic and community settings in a project with 2 key aims: (1) Test the efficacy of PCplanner-augmented collaborative palliative care vs usual care in a randomized clinical trial (RCT) with 3-month follow up, and (2) Explore family caregiver and clinician experiences using mixed methods to understand intervention mechanisms as well as implementation barriers within diverse case contexts. The key hypothesis is that compared to usual care, PCplanner will reduce family caregivers' unmet needs and psychological distress, increase the frequency of goal concordant treatment among older adult patients, and reduce hospital length of stay.

Enrollment: 152 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 50+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

PATIENTS

Inclusion Criteria:

• ≥50 years of age
• Receive care in a study ICU for ≥24 hours
• Meets ≥1 of 9 high risk phenotypes a. Dementia (e.g., Alzheimer's, multi-infarct, other dementia etiology) b. Declining health status defined by EITHER: i. ≥2 hospital admissions in 3 months preceding current admission OR ii. >1 ICU admission in 3 months preceding current admission c. Poor functional status defined by EITHER: i. admit from Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) or Long-Term Acute Care (LTAC) facility OR ii. ≥3 activities of daily living (ADL) limitations at admission d. Severe acute illness defined by EITHER: i. cardiac arrest OR ii. multisystem organ failure (≥3 of: lung, kidney, hematological, brain, cardiac, liver) that has worsened over 48 hours (i.e., Sequential Organ Failure Assessment [SOFA] score increase) e. Severe acute stroke (e.g., acute intracranial hemorrhage, ischemic stroke, or traumatic brain injury) f. Acute respiratory failure (ventilation or high oxygen support for ≥24 hours) g. Acute renal failure (new hemodialysis or continuous venovenous hemodiafiltration for ≥1 hour) h. Advanced cancer (Advanced / metastatic cancer diagnosis) i. Shock (use of vasopressor or inotrope for ≥4 hours)

Exclusion Criteria (pre-consent):

• Palliative care consultation performed during the hospitalization before eligibility determination
• Current admission to ICU at the index hospital ≥8 days
• Imprisoned
• No known family or surrogate decision maker
• Death expected within 24 hours

Exclusion Criteria (post-consent):

• Patient dies before T2

FAMILY MEMBER

Inclusion Criteria:

• ≥18 years of age
• Self-described as the individual (related or unrelated) who provides the most support and with whom the patient has a significant relationship (per definition of 'family' described in the Society of Critical Care Medicine 2016 Guidelines for Family-Centered Care in the Neonatal, Pediatric, and Adult ICU)

Exclusion Criteria (pre-consent):

• Lack a knowledge of English such that the potential participant is not confident that they could complete study tasks (app viewing, surveys)
• Imprisoned
• Unable to complete surveys for any reason

Exclusion Criteria (post-consent):

• Low need burden (NEST score <10) at baseline

ICU PHYSICIANS

Inclusion Criteria:

• ≥18 years of age
• Attending or fellow physician in a study ICU

Exclusion Criteria:

• None

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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152 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention

Active Comparator group

Description:

PCplanner intervention during hospitalization

Treatment:

Behavioral: PCplanner

Usual care control

No Intervention group

Description:

Usual care