Advance Care Planning & Goals of Care Randomized Controlled Trial in Primary Care

Chronic Illness Clinical Trial

Official title:

A Randomized Trial of ACP/GCD Care Pathway in Primary Care in Alberta

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03434626
• Other study ID #: 06-17
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: October 20, 2017
• Est. completion date: December 31, 2018

Study information

• Verified date: June 2019
• Source: McMaster University
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Sometimes people with health conditions become ill suddenly and can no longer speak for themselves and another person (such as a family member) will make health care decisions for them. This means it is important for people to think about their wishes and tell others about them. This is called advance care planning. When people have done advance care planning, if they become very sick and cannot speak for themselves they are more likely to get the kind of health care they want and it is easier for the people who make decisions for them. In Alberta, there is a form in the health care system that is used to indicate a person's wishes if participants are unable to speak for themselves. There are tools such as brochures, questionnaires, and videos that can help participants learn about advance care planning and serious illness conversations. This research is being done to study whether using tools for advance care planning will help improve goals of care designation completion rates in such a way that they better reflect patient values. In this project, we aim to determine the efficacy of tools to increase the quality and quantity of advance care planning (ACP) and Goals of Care Determinations (GCD) in primary care settings in Alberta.

Description:

In prospective and randomized trials, advance care planning (ACP) significantly improves outcomes including increased likelihood that clinicians and families understand and comply with a patient's wishes, reduces hospitalization at the end of life, results in less intensive treatments at the end of life (according to patients' wishes) and increases use of hospice services. Trials have not been done in primary care. The aim of this study is to determine the efficacy of a care pathway designed to increase the quality and quantity of ACP in patients and their substitute decision-makers in primary care. The study is a multi-site, patient-based, unblinded, randomized trial conducted in family practices in Canada. Participants will be patients who are determined by their physician to be able to benefit from ACP, and the patient's substitute decision-maker. Participant pairs will be randomized to immediate intervention (care pathway) or delayed (8-12 weeks). The intervention is guided use of tools and decision aids to clarify values and preferences for treatments in the event of serious illness or near end of life. The outcomes will be presence of a goals of care form in the chart, substitute decision-maker engagement in ACP (including self-efficacy for enacting the role), patient engagement in ACP, and decisional conflict.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 120
• Est. completion date: December 31, 2018
• Est. primary completion date: September 26, 2018
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 65 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• age 65 years or older

• have at least one chronic condition that may be life-limiting

Exclusion Criteria:

• Unable to communicate with an English-speaking research coordinator

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Chronic Disease
• Chronic Illness
• Comorbidities

Intervention

Behavioral:
• ACP Education
Decision aid and Goals of Care Designation form information administered by Navigator

Other:
• Usual care
Usual care includes reviewing Goals of Care Designation form and Greensleeve with physician

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Canada	Chinook Primary Care Network	Lethbridge	Alberta
Canada	Family Medical Centre	Lethbridge	Alberta

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
McMaster University	Queen's University

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Canada, 

References & Publications (21)

Cook D, Rocker G, Marshall J, Sjokvist P, Dodek P, Griffith L, Freitag A, Varon J, Bradley C, Levy M, Finfer S, Hamielec C, McMullin J, Weaver B, Walter S, Guyatt G; Level of Care Study Investigators and the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group. Withdrawal — View Citation

De Vleminck A, Houttekier D, Pardon K, Deschepper R, Van Audenhove C, Vander Stichele R, Deliens L. Barriers and facilitators for general practitioners to engage in advance care planning: a systematic review. Scand J Prim Health Care. 2013 Dec;31(4):215-2 — View Citation

Detering KM, Hancock AD, Reade MC, Silvester W. The impact of advance care planning on end of life care in elderly patients: randomised controlled trial. BMJ. 2010 Mar 23;340:c1345. doi: 10.1136/bmj.c1345. — View Citation

Ehlenbach WJ, Barnato AE, Curtis JR, Kreuter W, Koepsell TD, Deyo RA, Stapleton RD. Epidemiologic study of in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the elderly. N Engl J Med. 2009 Jul 2;361(1):22-31. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa0810245. — View Citation

Fried TR, Redding CA, Robbins ML, O'Leary JR, Iannone L. Agreement between older persons and their surrogate decision-makers regarding participation in advance care planning. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2011 Jun;59(6):1105-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2011.03412.x. — View Citation

Gruneir A, Mor V, Weitzen S, Truchil R, Teno J, Roy J. Where people die: a multilevel approach to understanding influences on site of death in America. Med Care Res Rev. 2007 Aug;64(4):351-78. Review. — View Citation

Hammes BJ, Rooney BL. Death and end-of-life planning in one midwestern community. Arch Intern Med. 1998 Feb 23;158(4):383-90. — View Citation

Heyland DK, Barwich D, Pichora D, Dodek P, Lamontagne F, You JJ, Tayler C, Porterfield P, Sinuff T, Simon J; ACCEPT (Advance Care Planning Evaluation in Elderly Patients) Study Team; Canadian Researchers at the End of Life Network (CARENET). Failure to en — View Citation

Heyland DK, Ilan R, Jiang X, You JJ, Dodek P. The prevalence of medical error related to end-of-life communication in Canadian hospitals: results of a multicentre observational study. BMJ Qual Saf. 2016 Sep;25(9):671-9. doi: 10.1136/bmjqs-2015-004567. Epu — View Citation

Heyland DK, Lavery JV, Tranmer JE, Shortt SE, Taylor SJ. Dying in Canada: is it an institutionalized, technologically supported experience? J Palliat Care. 2000 Oct;16 Suppl:S10-6. — View Citation

Houben CHM, Spruit MA, Groenen MTJ, Wouters EFM, Janssen DJA. Efficacy of advance care planning: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2014 Jul;15(7):477-489. doi: 10.1016/j.jamda.2014.01.008. Epub 2014 Mar 2. Review. — View Citation

Howard M, Bernard C, Tan A, Slaven M, Klein D, Heyland DK. Advance care planning: Let's start sooner. Can Fam Physician. 2015 Aug;61(8):663-5. — View Citation

Johnston SC, Pfeifer MP, McNutt R. The discussion about advance directives. Patient and physician opinions regarding when and how it should be conducted. End of Life Study Group. Arch Intern Med. 1995 May 22;155(10):1025-30. — View Citation

Raymont V, Bingley W, Buchanan A, David AS, Hayward P, Wessely S, Hotopf M. Prevalence of mental incapacity in medical inpatients and associated risk factors: cross-sectional study. Lancet. 2004 Oct 16-22;364(9443):1421-7. — View Citation

Rhee JJ, Zwar NA, Kemp LA. Advance care planning and interpersonal relationships: a two-way street. Fam Pract. 2013 Apr;30(2):219-26. doi: 10.1093/fampra/cms063. Epub 2012 Oct 1. — View Citation

Robinson C, Kolesar S, Boyko M, Berkowitz J, Calam B, Collins M. Awareness of do-not-resuscitate orders: what do patients know and want? Can Fam Physician. 2012 Apr;58(4):e229-33. — View Citation

Silveira MJ, Kim SY, Langa KM. Advance directives and outcomes of surrogate decision making before death. N Engl J Med. 2010 Apr 1;362(13):1211-8. doi: 10.1056/NEJMsa0907901. — View Citation

Sudore RL, Lum HD, You JJ, Hanson LC, Meier DE, Pantilat SZ, Matlock DD, Rietjens JAC, Korfage IJ, Ritchie CS, Kutner JS, Teno JM, Thomas J, McMahan RD, Heyland DK. Defining Advance Care Planning for Adults: A Consensus Definition From a Multidisciplinary — View Citation

Teixeira AA, Hanvey L, Tayler C, Barwich D, Baxter S, Heyland DK; Canadian Researchers at End of Life Network (CARENET). What do Canadians think of advanced care planning? Findings from an online opinion poll. BMJ Support Palliat Care. 2015 Mar;5(1):40-7. — View Citation

Teno JM, Fisher ES, Hamel MB, Coppola K, Dawson NV. Medical care inconsistent with patients' treatment goals: association with 1-year Medicare resource use and survival. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2002 Mar;50(3):496-500. — View Citation

You JJ, Dodek P, Lamontagne F, Downar J, Sinuff T, Jiang X, Day AG, Heyland DK; ACCEPT Study Team and the Canadian Researchers at the End of Life Network (CARENET). What really matters in end-of-life discussions? Perspectives of patients in hospital with — View Citation

* Note: There are 21 references in all — Click here to view all references

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Presence of a completed goals of care designation form in the patient chart	In Alberta there is a form in the health care system that is used to indicate a person's wishes if they are unable to speak for themselves. The form is called a "Goal of Care Designation" form and is part of a package called the 'Greensleeve'. Alberta Health Services requires that all patients in primary care and in hospital have a green sleeve and goal of care designation (RMC classification: R=resuscitative; M=medical; C=comfort care).	8-12 weeks
Secondary	Agreement between patient's self-reported values and preferences for life sustaining treatment, and what is documented in the form in the chart	Dichotomous variable of whether there is concordance between what the patient reports and what is in their chart (difference between groups)	8-12 weeks
Secondary	Physician rating of decisional conflict	The decisional conflict scale (DCS) measures personal perceptions of uncertainty in choosing options;modifiable factors contributing to uncertainty such as feeling uninformed, unclear about personal values and unsupported in decision making; and effective decision making. The outcome is the agreement between patient's self-reported preference for life sustaining treatment and decisional conflict using a 5-item decisional conflict scale pre- and post-intervention. Each item is scored 0 to 4 (0=Yes; 1=Probably Yes; 2=Unsure; 3=Probably No; 4=No)	8-12 weeks
Secondary	Patient-reported satisfaction with the intervention	Do patients who participate in an ACP educational intervention experience greater satisfaction with decision-making than patients who get usual care?	8-12 weeks