Objectives Decision aids are effective to improve decision-making, yet they are rarely tested in nursing homes (NHs). Study objectives were to 1) examine the feasibility of a Goals of Care (GOC) decision aid for surrogate decision-makers (SDMs)of persons with dementia; and 2) test its effect on quality of communication and decision-making. Design Pre-post intervention to test a GOC decision aid intervention for SDMs for persons with dementia in NHs. Investigators collected data from reviews of resident health records and interviews with SDMs at baseline and 3-month follow up. Setting Two NHs in North Carolina. Participants 18 residents who were over 65 years of age, had moderate to severe dementia on the Global Deterioration Scale (GDS=5,6,7), and an English-speaking surrogate decision-maker. Intervention 1) GOC Decision Aid video viewed by the SDM, and 2) a structured care plan meeting between the SDM and interdisciplinary NH team Measurements Surrogate knowledge, quality of communication with health care providers, surrogate-provider concordance on goals of care, and palliative care domains addressed in the care plan. Results 89% of the SDMs thought the decision aid was relevant to their needs. After viewing the video decision aid, SDMs increased the number of correct responses on knowledge-based questions (12.5 vs 14.2, P<.001). At 3 months they reported improved quality of communication scores (6.1 vs 6.8, P=.01) and improved concordance on primary goal of care with nursing home team (50% vs 78%, P=.003). The number of palliative care domains addressed in the care plan increased (1.8 vs 4.3, P<.001). Conclusion The decision-support intervention piloted in this study was feasible and relevant for surrogate decision-makers of persons with advanced dementia in nursing homes, and it improved quality of communication between SDM and NH providers. A larger randomized clinical trial is underway to provide further evidence of the effects of this decision aid intervention.

Older adults frequently present to the emergency department (ED) with injuries that do not require operative treatment but are sufficiently severe to make it unsafe for them to return home. These patients typically do not meet criteria for an ‘inpatient’ hospital admission. However, because of the limited reimbursement for observation patients, admitting physicians are often reluctant to accept these patients in to observation. Admission to a skilled nursing or assisted living facility from the ED or rapid access to additional in-home care is also often difficult or impossible. As a result, older patients with non-operative injuries often spend a long time in the ED waiting for an appropriate disposition. We describe the challenges of identifying an appropriate disposition for these patients, the consequences for patients, and some potential solutions to this commonly encountered problem.

Background/Objectives: To determine the impact of educational interventions, clinic workflow redesign, and quality improvement coaching on the frequency of advance care planning (ACP) activities for patients over the age of 65. Design: Nonrandomized before-and-after study. Setting: 13 ambulatory care clinics with 81 primary care providers in eastern and central North Carolina. Participants: Patients across 13 primary care clinics staffed by 66 physicians, 8 physician assistants and 7 family nurse practitioners. Interventions: Interprofessional, interactive ACP training for the entire interprofessional team and quality improvement project management with an emphasis on workflow redesign. Measurements: From July 2017 through June 2018—number of ACP discussions, number of written ACP documents incorporated into the electronic medical record (EMR), number of ACP encounters billed. Results: Following the interventions, healthcare providers were more than twice as likely to conduct ACP discussions with their patients. Patients were 1.4 times more likely to have an ACP document included in their electronic medical record. Providers were significantly ( p < 0.05) more likely to bill for an ACP encounter in only one clinic. Conclusions: Implementing ACP education for all clinic staff, planning for workflow changes to involve the entire interprofessional team and supporting ACP activities with quality improvement coaching leads to statistically significant improvements in the frequency of ACP discussions, the number of ACP documents included in the electronic medical record and number of ACP encounters billed.

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