Preventing Readmissions Through Effective Partnerships-Communication and Palliative Care (PREP-CPC): A Multisite Intervention for Encouraging Goals of Care Conversations for Hospitalized Patients Facing Serious Illness

Abstract

Background: Despite evidence showing that goals of care (GOC) conversations increase the likelihood that patients facing a serious illness receive care that is concordant with their wishes, only a minority of at-risk patients receive the opportunity to engage in such conversations.

Objective: The Preventing Readmissions through Effective Partnerships-Communication and Palliative Care (PREP-CPC) intervention was designed to increase the frequency of GOC conversations for hospitalized patients facing serious illness.

Methods: The PREP-CPC employed a sequential, multicohort design using a yearlong mentored implementation approach to support nonpalliative care health-care professionals at participating hospitals to implement quality improvement projects focused on GOC conversations.

Results: Over the 3-year study period, 134 clinicians from 29 hospital teams were trained to facilitate GOC conversations. After the kickoff conference, participants reported improvements in their confidence in facilitating GOC conversations. The hospital teams then instituted site-specific pilot interventions to promote GOC conversations, identifying essential elements required for ongoing improvement. Since projects varied by hospital, results did as well, but reported positive outcomes included increased GOC conversations, increased Practitioner Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment form completion rates, new screening and documentation methods, and increased support from leadership.

Conclusions: The PREP-CPC pilot successfully engaged a diverse set of hospitals to participate in quality improvement collaborative promoting primary palliative care and more frequent GOC conversations. This initiative revealed several lessons that should guide future interventions.

Keywords: goals of care (GOC); mentored implementation; primary palliative care.