Intervention to Promote Advance Care Planning for Older Adults in the Emergency Department

University of North Carolina (UNC)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Emergency Medicine; Advance Care Planning

Treatments: Behavioral: Primary Care Provider Email; Behavioral: Educational Video

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03402763

15-3371

Details and patient eligibility

About

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.

Full 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.

Enrollment: 42 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 65+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

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

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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42 participants in 2 patient groups

Control Arm

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants receive a short informational handout on the process and choices involved in advance care planning.

Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Participants are shown a 6-minute video that describe CPR, breathing tube placement, and mechanical breathing support in addition to the general process of advance care planning.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Educational Video

Behavioral: Primary Care Provider Email