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A Pragmatic Trial of an Active Choice Nudge for Generalist or Specialist Palliative Care for Seriously Ill Inpatients

NCT05502861 · Status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 18884

Last updated 2026-04-14

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

This stepped-wedge, cluster-randomized pragmatic trial among six hospitals at University of Pennsylvania Health System will test a behavioral intervention embedded within the electronic health record that nudges hospital clinicians to either provide palliative care (PC) themselves (generalist PC) or consult specialists (specialty PC) for inpatients at high risk of death within 6 months. The trial will evaluate the intervention's effect compared to usual care on the primary outcome of hospital-free days through 6 months, and other patient-centered, clinical, and economic outcomes. The trial also includes an embedded mixed methods study to understand clinician and hospital contextual factors that influence the intervention's uptake.

Conditions

  • Palliative Care

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Generalist + Specialist palliative care

Clinicians are alerted in the EHR to make an active choice whether to provide generalist palliative care themselves, consult PC specialist, or to defer PC at that time.

BEHAVIORAL

Pre-Intervention phase

Patients meeting eligibility criteria will be enrolled for study data collection but there will be no attempt to influence delivery of care.

Sponsors & Collaborators

Principal Investigators

  • Katherine R Courtright, MD, MS · University of Pennsylvania

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
TRIPLE
Model
CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2023-11-13
Primary Completion
2026-05-17
Completion
2026-05-17

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Companies

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT05502861 on ClinicalTrials.gov