The CARS Study: Communicating About Readiness (for Discharge)

NCT01873105 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: PRO00019092
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 604
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The purpose of this study is to improve the experience of discharge of adult medical surgical patients through improved discharge preparation communication between patients and care team members, with subsequent improvement in the post-discharge experience. Obtaining multiple perspectives on discharge readiness creates the opportunity for patient and care team to partner in identifying deficiencies in discharge readiness that warrant anticipatory, compensatory, or corrective interventions prior to discharge, with the goal of averting post-discharge problems and utilization. The results will also inform development and translation of tools for assessment of discharge readiness to clinical care environments.

Conditions

Hospital Discharge Communication Processes

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Readmission

  Readmission within the 30 days after hospital discharge

  30 days post discharge

• Emergency Department visits

  ED visits within the 30 days after hospital discharge

  30 days post discharge

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Post-discharge Coping Difficulty Scale

  14 to 21 days post-hospitalization

Study Arms (2)

Health team educational intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) TeamSTEPPS approach will be used to redesign health team communication processes regarding preparation for discharge. This redesign will be followed by education for all health team members.

Other: Health Team Educational Intervention

Control pre-intervention

NO INTERVENTION

Usual care control before implementation of the health team communication intervention

Interventions

Health Team Educational Intervention OTHER

AHRQ TeamStepps processes will be used to redesign health team discharge communication processes and an educational intervention for health care team members

Health team educational intervention

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• inpatient care team members from 2 nursing units of an academic medical center: Attending physician, resident, medical students, mid-level providers, staff RNs, and case managers/discharge coordinators
• adult medical-surgical patients admitted the 2 nursing units who are at least 18 years of age, speak English, and discharged directly home

You may not qualify if:

• patient discharged home with hospice care
• patients not discharged directly home
• decisionally incapacitated patients

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Marquette University: lead
• Froedtert Hospital: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Froedtert Hospital

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 53226, United States

Location

Study Officials

• Marianne Weiss, DNSc RN

  Marquette Unoversity

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

• Kristi Opper, MS RN

  Froedtert Hospital

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NON RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: OTHER
• Intervention Model: SEQUENTIAL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Associate Professor

Model Details: Before/after implementation of a health team communication intervention. 2 samples.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: April 26, 2013
• First Posted: June 7, 2013
• Study Start: March 1, 2014
• Primary Completion: May 1, 2016
• Study Completion: May 1, 2016
• Last Updated: April 18, 2019

Record last verified: 2019-04

Locations

US (1)