Effects of a Personalized Web-Based Decision Aid for Surrogate Decision Makers of Patients With Prolonged Mechanical Ventilation: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Background: Treatment decisions commonly have to be made in intensive care units (ICUs). These decisions are difficult for surrogate decision makers and often lead to decisional conflict, psychological distress, and treatments misaligned with patient preferences. Objective: To determine whether a decision aid about prolonged mechanical ventilation improved prognostic concordance between surrogate decision makers and clinicians compared with a usual care control. Design: Multicenter, parallel, randomized, clinical trial. (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01751061). Setting: 13 medical and surgical ICUs at 5 hospitals. Participants: Adult patients receiving prolonged mechanical ventilation and their surrogates, ICU physicians, and ICU nurses. Intervention: A Web-based decision aid provided personalized prognostic estimates, explained treatment options, and interactively clarified patient values to inform a family meeting. The control group received information according to usual care practices followed by a family meeting. Measurements: The primary outcome was improved concordance on 1-year survival estimates, measured with the clinician-surrogate concordance scale (range, 0 to 100 percentage points; higher scores indicate more discordance). Secondary and additional outcomes assessed the experiences of surrogates (psychological distress, decisional conflict, and quality of communication) and patients (length of stay and 6-month mortality). Outcomes assessors were blinded to group allocation. Results: The study enrolled 277 patients, 416 surrogates, and 427 clinicians. Concordance improvement did not differ between intervention and control groups (mean difference in score change from baseline, -1.7 percentage points [95% CI, -8.3 to 4.8 percentage points]; P = 0.60). Surrogates' postintervention estimates of patients' 1-year prognoses did not differ between intervention and control groups (median, 86.0% [interquartile range {IQR}, 50.0%] vs. 92.5% [IQR, 47.0%]; P = 0.23) and were substantially more optimistic than results of a validated prediction model (median, 56.0% [IQR, 43.0%]) and physician estimates (median, 50.0% [IQR, 55.5%]). Eighty-two intervention surrogates (43%) favored a treatment option that was more aggressive than their report of patient preferences. Although intervention surrogates had greater reduction in decisional conflict than control surrogates (mean difference in change from baseline, 0.4 points [CI, 0.0 to 0.7 points]; P = 0.041), other surrogate and patient outcomes did not differ. Limitation: Contamination among clinicians could have biased results toward the null hypothesis. Conclusion: A decision aid about prolonged mechanical ventilation did not improve prognostic concordance between clinicians and surrogates, reduce psychological distress among surrogates, or alter clinical outcomes. Decision support in acute care settings may require greater individualized attention for both the cognitive and affective challenges of decision making. Primary Funding Source: National Institutes of Health.

Effects of mindfulness training programmes delivered by a self-directed mobile app and by telephone compared with an education programme for survivors of critical illness: a pilot randomised clinical trial.

BACKGROUND: Patients who are sick enough to be admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) commonly experience symptoms of psychological distress after discharge, yet few effective therapies have been applied to meet their needs. METHODS: Pilot randomised clinical trial with 3-month follow-up conducted at two academic medical centres. Adult (≥18 years) ICU patients treated for cardiorespiratory failure were randomised after discharge home to 1 of 3 month-long interventions: a self-directed mobile app-based mindfulness programme; a therapist-led telephone-based mindfulness programme; or a web-based critical illness education programme. RESULTS: Among 80 patients allocated to mobile mindfulness (n=31), telephone mindfulness (n=31) or education (n=18), 66 (83%) completed the study. For the primary outcomes, target benchmarks were exceeded by observed rates for all participants for feasibility (consent 74%, randomisation 91%, retention 83%), acceptability (mean Client Satisfaction Questionnaire 27.6 (SD 3.8)) and usability (mean Systems Usability Score 89.1 (SD 11.5)). For secondary outcomes, mean values (and 95% CIs) reflected clinically significant group-based changes on the Patient Health Questionnaire depression scale (mobile (-4.8 (-6.6, -2.9)), telephone (-3.9 (-5.6, -2.2)), education (-3.0 (-5.3, 0.8)); the Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (mobile -2.1 (-3.7, -0.5), telephone -1.6 (-3.0, -0.1), education -0.6 (-2.5, 1.3)); the Post-Traumatic Stress Scale (mobile -2.6 (-6.3, 1.2), telephone -2.2 (-5.6, 1.2), education -3.5 (-8.0, 1.0)); and the Patient Health Questionnaire physical symptom scale (mobile -5.3 (-7.0, -3.7), telephone -3.7 (-5.2, 2.2), education -4.8 (-6.8, 2.7)). CONCLUSIONS: Among ICU patients, a mobile mindfulness app initiated after hospital discharge demonstrated evidence of feasibility, acceptability and usability and had a similar impact on psychological distress and physical symptoms as a therapist-led programme. A larger trial is warranted to formally test the efficacy of this approach. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: Results, NCT02701361.

Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Outcomes of Financial Stress in Survivors of Critical Illness.

OBJECTIVES: Little is known about the experience of financial stress for patients who survive critical illness or their families. Our objective was to describe the prevalence of financial stress among critically ill patients and their families, identify clinical and demographic characteristics associated with this stress, and explore associations between financial stress and psychologic distress. DESIGN: Secondary analysis of a randomized trial comparing a coping skills training program and an education program for patients surviving acute respiratory failure and their families. SETTING: Five geographically diverse hospitals. PARTICIPANTS: Patients (n = 175) and their family members (n = 85) completed surveys within 2 weeks of arrival home and 3 and 6 months after randomization. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: We used regression analyses to assess associations between patient and family characteristics at baseline and financial stress at 3 and 6 months. We used path models and mediation analyses to explore relationships between financial stress, symptoms of anxiety and depression, and global mental health. Serious financial stress was high at both time points and was highest at 6 months (42.5%) among patients and at 3 months (48.5%) among family members. Factors associated with financial stress included female sex, young children at home, and baseline financial discomfort. Experiencing financial stress had direct effects on symptoms of anxiety (ß = 0.260; p < 0.001) and depression (ß = 0.048; p = 0.048). CONCLUSIONS: Financial stress after critical illness is common and associated with symptoms of anxiety and depression. Our findings provide direction for potential interventions to reduce this stress and improve psychologic outcomes for patients and their families.

Palliative Care Planner: A Pilot Study to Evaluate Acceptability and Usability of an Electronic Health Records System-integrated, Needs-targeted App Platform.

RATIONALE: The quality and patient-centeredness of intensive care unit (ICU)-based palliative care delivery is highly variable. OBJECTIVE: To develop and pilot an app platform for clinicians and ICU patients and their family members that enhances the delivery of needs-targeted palliative care. METHODS: In the development phase of the study, we developed an electronic health record (EHR) system-integrated mobile web app system prototype, PCplanner (Palliative Care Planner). PCplanner screens the EHR for ICU patients meeting any of five prompts (triggers) for palliative care consultation, allows families to report their unmet palliative care needs, and alerts clinicians to these needs. The evaluation phase included a prospective before/after study conducted at a large academic medical center. Two control populations were enrolled in the before period to serve as context for the intervention. First, 25 ICU patients who received palliative care consults served as patient-level controls. Second, 49 family members of ICU patients who received mechanical ventilation for at least 48 hours served as family-level controls. Afterward, 14 patients, 18 family members, and 10 clinicians participated in the intervention evaluation period. Family member outcomes measured at baseline and 4 days later included acceptability (Client Satisfaction Questionnaire [CSQ]), usability (Systems Usability Scale [SUS]), and palliative care needs, assessed with the adapted needs of social nature, existential concerns, symptoms, and therapeutic interaction (NEST) scale; the Patient-Centeredness of Care Scale (PCCS); and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Patient outcomes included frequency of goal concordant treatment, hospital length of stay, and discharge disposition. RESULTS: Family members reported high PCplanner acceptability (mean CSQ, 14.1 [SD, 1.4]) and usability (mean SUS, 21.1 [SD, 1.7]). PCplanner family member recipients experienced a 12.7-unit reduction in NEST score compared with a 3.4-unit increase among controls (P = 0.002), as well as improved mean scores on the PCCS (6.6 [SD, 5.8]) and the PSS (-0.8 [SD, 1.9]). The frequency of goal-concordant treatment increased over the course of the intervention (n = 14 [SD, 79%] vs. n = 18 [SD, 100%]). Compared with palliative care controls, intervention patients received palliative care consultation sooner (3.9 [SD, 2.7] vs. 6.9 [SD, 7.1] mean days), had a shorter mean hospital length of stay (20.5 [SD, 9.1] vs. 22.3 [SD, 16.0] patient number), and received hospice care more frequently (5 [36%] vs. 5 [20%]), although these differences were not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: PCplanner represents an acceptable, usable, and clinically promising systems-based approach to delivering EHR-triggered, needs-targeted ICU-based palliative care within a standard clinical workflow. A clinical trial in a larger population is needed to evaluate its efficacy.

Effects of a Telephone- and Web-based Coping Skills Training Program Compared with an Education Program for Survivors of Critical Illness and Their Family Members. A Randomized Clinical Trial.

RATIONALE: Many survivors of critical illness and their family members experience significant psychological distress after patient discharge. OBJECTIVES: To compare the effects of a coping skills training (CST) program with an education program on patient and family psychological distress. METHODS: In this five-center clinical trial, adult patients who received mechanical ventilation for more than 48 hours and one family member of each patient were randomized to six weekly CST telephone sessions plus access to a study website or a critical illness education program. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The primary outcome was the patient Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) score at 3 months. Secondary outcomes included 3- and 6-month HADS subscales and the Impact of Events Scale-Revised. Among the 175 patients randomized to CST (n = 86) or education (n = 89), there was no significant difference between CST and education in either 3-month HADS scores (difference, 1.3; 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.9 to 3.4; P = 0.24) or secondary patient and family outcomes. In prespecified analyses, among patients with high baseline distress (n = 60), CST recipients had greater improvement in 6-month HADS score (difference, -4.6; 95% CI, -8.6 to -0.6; P = 0.02) than the education group. Among patients ventilated longer than 7 days (n = 47), education recipients had greater improvement in 3-month HADS score (difference, -4.0; 95% CI, -8.1 to -0.05; P = 0.047) than the CST group. CONCLUSIONS: CST did not improve psychological distress symptoms compared with an education program. However, CST improved symptoms of distress at 6 months among patients with high baseline distress, whereas the education program improved distress at 3 months among those ventilated for more than 7 days. Future efforts to address psychological distress among critical illness survivors should target high-risk populations. Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01983254).

Improving ICU-Based Palliative Care Delivery: A Multicenter, Multidisciplinary Survey of Critical Care Clinician Attitudes and Beliefs.

OBJECTIVE: Addressing the quality gap in ICU-based palliative care is limited by uncertainty about acceptable models of collaborative specialist and generalist care. Therefore, we characterized the attitudes of physicians and nurses about palliative care delivery in an ICU environment. DESIGN: Mixed-methods study. SETTING: Medical and surgical ICUs at three large academic hospitals. PARTICIPANTS: Three hundred three nurses, intensivists, and advanced practice providers. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Clinicians completed written surveys that assessed attitudes about specialist palliative care presence and integration into the ICU setting, as well as acceptability of 23 published palliative care prompts (triggers) for specialist consultation. Most (n = 225; 75%) reported that palliative care consultation was underutilized. Prompting consideration of eligibility for specialist consultation by electronic health record searches for triggers was most preferred (n = 123; 41%); only 17 of them (6%) felt current processes were adequate. The most acceptable specialist triggers were metastatic malignancy, unrealistic goals of care, end of life decision making, and persistent organ failure. Advanced age, length of stay, and duration of life support were the least acceptable. Screening led by either specialists or ICU teams was equally preferred. Central themes derived from qualitative analysis of 65 written responses to open-ended items included concerns about the roles of physicians and nurses, implementation, and impact on ICU team-family relationships. CONCLUSIONS: Integration of palliative care specialists in the ICU is broadly acceptable and desired. However, the most commonly used current triggers for prompting specialist consultation were among the least well accepted, while more favorable triggers are difficult to abstract from electronic health record systems. There is also disagreement about the role of ICU nurses in palliative care delivery. These findings provide important guidance to the development of collaborative care models for the ICU setting.

Usability Testing of an Electronic Patient-Reported Outcome System for Survivors of Critical Illness.

BACKGROUND: Web-based electronic patient-reported outcomes (ePRO) measures are increasingly used to facilitate patient-centered health assessments. However, it is unknown if ePRO completion is feasible for recently ill intensive care unit (ICU) survivors and their families. OBJECTIVE: To develop and evaluate the usability of a novel ePRO system (ePRO to Support People and Enhance Recovery [ePROSPER]) among ICU survivors and their families within an ongoing clinical trial. METHODS: Paper-based PROs were iteratively adapted to electronic forms (ePROs). Then, the usability of ePROSPER was assessed among 60 patients, their family members, and PRO and programming experts via questionnaires (eg, Systems Usability Scale), "think aloud" open-ended feedback, task completion times, and error rates. RESULTS: Input from patients and their families was used to incorporate user-experience modifications into ePROSPER. This feedback also led to inclusion of automated reminders for questionnaire completion and real-time alerts for staff triggered by high symptom levels. Median usability scores increased over testing cycles from 40 to 73 to 95, nearing the maximum score and showing excellent usability. All users completed ePROSPER within 20 minutes; 87% preferred it to a written version. ePROSPER was then implemented in a clinical trial without data errors. CONCLUSIONS: Automated ePRO systems can be successfully integrated in a post-ICU clinical trial setting. The value of integrating such systems in direct clinical care should be assessed in future studies.