Linking Emergency Department Patients to Assistance Programs Study

NCT05654220 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 852553
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 161
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The objective of this randomized controlled trial is to test the effect of screening patients in Penn Medicine Emergency Departments for eligibility of public benefits programs and using text messages post-discharge to connect patients to benefits enrollment specialists at Benefits Data Trust (BDT). Eligible patients will be randomly selected to receive text messages for two weeks after Emergency Department discharge with the phone number to speak with a benefits enrollment specialist at BDT. The number of calls to the BDT phone line and the number of submitted applications to public benefits programs will be compared between patients receiving a summary flyer with the phone number for BDT and the text message intervention to connect with BDT in comparison to an active control group who receives only a summary flyer with the phone number for BDT.

Conditions

Social Determinants of Health

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Participant Connection to BDT

  Participant connection to BDT measured by phone calls completed by confirmed participants to BDT.

  14 days post-discharge from the emergency department

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Number of Applications Submitted

  14 days post-discharge from the emergency department

Study Arms (2)

Active Control

NO INTERVENTION

Participants in the control group will receive a summary flyer providing contact information for benefits enrollment navigators at BenePhilly, which includes a unique study phone line provided by Benefits Data Trust. Currently, the standard of care is for ED patients to receive no information about public benefits. Therefore, the flyer represents an augmentation of usual care for patients randomized to the control group.

Intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in the intervention arm will receive a summary flyer providing contact information for benefits enrollment navigators at BenePhilly and will be instructed that study personnel will contact them one-day post-discharge to help connect them to a BDT enrollment navigator to help them submit their applications for public benefits. At Day 1 post-discharge, participants in the intervention group will receive a text message to prompt them to call the BDT enrollment navigators to complete their applications for public benefits they screened for while in the ED. On Day 3, patients will receive a follow-up message to assess whether they have contacted BDT. Those participants who indicate they have not yet connected with BDT on Day 3 will receive reminder text messages at Day 7 and 14 post-discharge.

Behavioral: Text Messaging Intervention

Interventions

Text Messaging Intervention BEHAVIORAL

A text messaging intervention will be conducted that includes prompts to call trained BenePhilly enrollment specialists to submit applications for benefits programs. Text message prompts will be sent on days 2, 4, 7, 14, and 21 post-discharge from a Penn Medicine emergency department.

Intervention

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Patients will be included in the study based on the following criteria:
• Adults at least 18 years of age
• Patients must legally reside in Philadelphia
• Patients receiving care from Penn Medicine Emergency Departments at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Centerwho are deemed unlikely to require inpatient hospitalization or observation at the time of enrollment
• Patients must have one of the following insurance plans: Medicaid and/or Medicare (managed and traditional).
• Patient must be able to read/write in English.
• Patients must be eligible for at least 1 of the benefits programs for which BDT can provide either direct application assistance or provide a referral to the social services agency website to submit applications.
• Patients have a stable mobile phone number for the next 3 weeks.

You may not qualify if:

• Patients will be excluded from participating in the study based on the following criteria:
• Individuals \< 18 years
• Patients deemed by ED physicians to be in critical or unstable condition
• Does not speak/read English
• Patient is in severe distress, e.g., respiratory, physical, or emotional distress
• Patient is intoxicated, unconscious, or unable to appropriately respond to questions
• Patients under police custody
• Patients with a positive COVID-19 test
• Patients with private health insurance benefits or without health insurance
• Patients without a stable mobile phone number for the next 21 days

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Pennsylvania: lead
• Benefits Data Trust: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

University of Pennsylvania Health System

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19104, United States

Location

Study Officials

• Austin Kilaru, MD, MSHP

  Principal Investigator

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: December 8, 2022
• First Posted: December 16, 2022
• Study Start: July 19, 2023
• Primary Completion: May 15, 2024
• Study Completion: June 30, 2024
• Last Updated: July 31, 2024

Record last verified: 2024-07

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (1)