Project to Improve Communication About Serious Illness - Pilot Study

Summary

This two-year pilot study will test whether a one-page "Jumpstart Form" will affect goals-of-care discussions in the hospital. This form will be provided to clinicians and will include patient-specific information about preferences for goals-of-care communication and for care, as well as tips to improve this communication. Jumpstart forms will also be provided to patients or, if they are unable to communicate, their surrogates/family members. The information on the form will be obtained from questionnaires. The form is tailored to help patients and surrogates talk with clinicians about goals of care. This study is based on a successful application of Jumpstart Form in the outpatient clinic setting.

Conditions

• Malignant Neoplasm
• Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Chronic, B-Cell
• Lung Disease Chronic
• Congestive Heart Failure
• Liver Failures, Chronic
• Renal Insufficiency, Chronic
• Dementia
• Diabetes Complications
• Peripheral Vascular Disease
• Frail Elderly

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Jumpstart Intervention

The intervention has 4 steps: use electronic medical record (EHR) to identify seriously ill, hospitalized patients with no documentation of a goals-of-care (GOC) discussion during their current admission; the enrolled patient or his/her surrogate completes a survey assessing preferences for discussions about GOC, barriers to having such discussions, and current GOC which is used to create a "Jumpstart" form designed to prompt and guide a GOC discussion between the patient or surrogate and the clinicians caring for the patient; use natural language processing/machine learning (NLP/ML) approach to identify GOC discussions or advance directives in the EHR that occurred prior to admission and include this information on the Jumpstart form; and, deliver the Jumpstart form to the primary clinician team. The patient or surrogate is also provided with a version of the form.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Washington

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Ruth Engelberg, PhD · University of Washington

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2018-07-01

Primary Completion

2020-06-30

Completion

2020-06-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations