NCT02405312

Brief Summary

This year, 90,000 Americans with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) will die and questions will legitimately be raised as to whether terminal treatment and location of death adequately represented their preferences. These concerns are linked by a failure on the part of patients and staff to discuss prognosis and share in end-of-life (EOL) planning. The rate of hospice use among patients dying with ESRD is half that of the national average and one-quarter the rate for patients with terminal cancer. In other patient populations when meaningful EOL conversation occurs this is associated with increased hospice referral and improved quality of the dying. Patients receiving hemodialysis (HD) often desire but rarely communicate with staff about prognoses, know little about availability of community hospice resources, or how to complete advance directives. Nephrologists are not trained to have these conversations, and although accustomed to relying on interdisciplinary teams, they are unaccustomed to collaborating with community hospices. Our preliminary research began by using focus groups, created and validated the first clinically useful HD prognostic tool, and developed a prototype for Shared Decision Making and Renal Supportive Care (SDM-RSC). This is a novel multimodal intervention that familiarizes patients, families, and dialysis staff with community hospice resources, emphasizes dialysis social work support, conveys information about terminal care issues, and encourages advance care planning. The proposed study tests the central hypothesis that EOL care can be improved by relying on patients and stakeholders to enhance SDM-RSC for HD patients who are most likely to die. It will test whether an intervention that targets communication deficiencies can alter EOL outcomes and achieve the goal of matching patient preferences with terminal treatments.

Trial Health

87
On Track

Trial Health Score

Automated assessment based on enrollment pace, timeline, and geographic reach

Enrollment
172

participants targeted

Target at P75+ for not_applicable

Timeline
Completed

Started Sep 2014

Typical duration for not_applicable

Geographic Reach
1 country

1 active site

Status
completed

Health score is calculated from publicly available data and should be used for screening purposes only.

Trial Relationships

Click on a node to explore related trials.

Study Timeline

Key milestones and dates

Study Start

First participant enrolled

September 1, 2014

Completed
5 months until next milestone

First Submitted

Initial submission to the registry

February 6, 2015

Completed
2 months until next milestone

First Posted

Study publicly available on registry

April 1, 2015

Completed
1.9 years until next milestone

Primary Completion

Last participant's last visit for primary outcome

March 1, 2017

Completed
Same day until next milestone

Study Completion

Last participant's last visit for all outcomes

March 1, 2017

Completed
Last Updated

July 6, 2017

Status Verified

July 1, 2017

Enrollment Period

2.5 years

First QC Date

February 6, 2015

Last Update Submit

July 3, 2017

Conditions

Keywords

communicationpalliative caredeath

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

  • hospice use (documented in administrative data)

    Hospice use as documented in administrative data

    2 years prior to study initiation to 1 year post initiation

Secondary Outcomes (4)

  • location of death (site of death (home) as documented in administrative data)

    12 months post enrollment

  • completion of advanced directives (documented in administrative data)

    12 months post enrollment

  • depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-9 Scores)

    Change from baseline over 12 months of follow-up or until subject death, whichever came first

  • Caregiver Satisfaction (Famcare Scores)

    Change from baseline over 12 months of follow-up or until subject death, whichever came first

Study Arms (1)

advance care planning

EXPERIMENTAL

nephrologist empowers social worker to meet with patient and family.

Behavioral: advance care planning

Interventions

patient and family meeting with dialysis social worker and nephrologist with discussion of advance care planning and hospice resources

advance care planning

Eligibility Criteria

Age18 Years+
Sexall
Healthy VolunteersNo
Age GroupsAdult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

  • High-risk patients, as defined by falling within the high-risk category of our validated prognostic instrument and have approximately 50% 18-month mortality.
  • English- and Spanish-speaking patients will be included (estimated to be 95% of this population).
  • Patients who receive hemodialysis at one of our 16 research dialysis sites during the data collection period.
  • Patients must be willing and able to sign the consent form.
  • Patients who are lack the capacity to meaningfully participate in medical decisions must have a surrogate who is willing to sign the informed consent.

You may not qualify if:

  • Children 18 years of age. Children constitute 2% of the dialysis population, and our preliminary survey of the study sites found no children were active patients. In any case, the renal and other physical factors of children with ESRD are not directly comparable to those of adults.
  • Does not belong to the population's high-mortality risk quintile according to our prognostic instrument
  • Severe psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder which would interfere with participation in the study (severity determined by psychiatric hospitalization in the past month or actively suicidal)
  • Active substance abuse (active abuse is defined as using alcohol or recreational drugs in the past 30 days in a way that interferes with their ability to function in daily life)
  • Expectation of native kidney recovery
  • History of poor adherence to thrice-weekly hemodialysis (poor adherence defined by missing 4 treatments in the past month)
  • Unable to communicate in English or Spanish
  • Scheduled for living donor kidney transplant, conversion to peritoneal dialysis, or plans to relocate to another hemodialysis unit
  • Current pregnancy or actively planning to become pregnant
  • Currently a prisoner
  • Unable or unwilling to follow the study protocol
  • Unable or unwilling to provide informed consent or sign Institutional Review Board (IRB)-approval or lack of a surrogate/proxy

Contact the study team to confirm eligibility.

Sponsors & Collaborators

Study Sites (1)

Fresenius Medical Corporation Dialysis Clinics

Springfield, Massachusetts, 01199, United States

Location

Related Publications (2)

  • Goff SL, Unruh ML, Klingensmith J, Eneanya ND, Garvey C, Germain MJ, Cohen LM. Advance care planning with patients on hemodialysis: an implementation study. BMC Palliat Care. 2019 Jul 26;18(1):64. doi: 10.1186/s12904-019-0437-2.

  • Eneanya ND, Goff SL, Martinez T, Gutierrez N, Klingensmith J, Griffith JL, Garvey C, Kitsen J, Germain MJ, Marr L, Berzoff J, Unruh M, Cohen LM. Shared decision-making in end-stage renal disease: a protocol for a multi-center study of a communication intervention to improve end-of-life care for dialysis patients. BMC Palliat Care. 2015 Jun 12;14:30. doi: 10.1186/s12904-015-0027-x.

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Renal Insufficiency, ChronicCommunicationDeath

Interventions

Advance Care Planning

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Renal InsufficiencyKidney DiseasesUrologic DiseasesFemale Urogenital DiseasesFemale Urogenital Diseases and Pregnancy ComplicationsUrogenital DiseasesMale Urogenital DiseasesChronic DiseaseDisease AttributesPathologic ProcessesPathological Conditions, Signs and SymptomsBehavior

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Patient Care PlanningComprehensive Health CarePatient Care ManagementHealth Services Administration

Study Officials

  • Lewis Cohen, MD

    Baystate Health

    PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

Study Type
interventional
Phase
not applicable
Allocation
NA
Masking
NONE
Purpose
SUPPORTIVE CARE
Intervention Model
SINGLE GROUP
Sponsor Type
OTHER
Responsible Party
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
PI Title
Psychiatrist

Study Record Dates

First Submitted

February 6, 2015

First Posted

April 1, 2015

Study Start

September 1, 2014

Primary Completion

March 1, 2017

Study Completion

March 1, 2017

Last Updated

July 6, 2017

Record last verified: 2017-07

Locations