Coaches Activating Reaching and Engaging Patients (CAREPlan): A randomized controlled trial combining two evidence-based interventions to improve goals of care documentation.

Abstract

2 Background: In our prior work, community or lay health worker-led goals of care interventions improved goals of care documentation by clinicians and decreased health care use at the end of life. Other studies have demonstrated improvements in provider-patient communication and goals of care documentation using the Serious Illness Care Program. The objective of this study was to determine whether the combination of these two interventions could improve goals of care documentation among patients with advanced stages of genitourinary cancers at an academic center. Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted from April 3, 2019, through October 30, 2019, among patients with metastatic or recurrent cancer on at least second line therapy in the urologic oncology clinics at Stanford Cancer Center. Patients were randomized to usual care or the intervention with a lay navigator trained to assist patients with establishing end-of-life care preferences using the Serious Illness Conversation Guide. The primary outcome was goals of care documentation by the primary oncologist. We used intent to treat analyses, descriptive statistics to compare demographic and clinical factors, and a logistic regression adjusting for imbalance to determine the effect on the primary outcome. Results: Two-hundred participants were randomized and included in the intent to treat analysis. Median age was 72 years, majority were male (n=175, 87.5%) and self-identified as non-Hispanic white (n=123, 61.5%). The majority had prostate cancer (n=110, 53.5%), followed by kidney cancer (n=51, 25.5%), and urothelial cancer (n=29, 14.5%) and most had stage IV disease at diagnosis (n=186, 93%). There were no significant differences in demographic or clinical factors except for gender; there were more females on the control arm (n=8 vs n=17, p=0.01) thus analysis of the primary outcome was adjusted for gender. The adjusted analysis showed that at 12 months post-enrollment, the intervention significantly increased goals of care documentation by the primary oncologist as compared to the control group (53.7% vs 32.6%, p=0.002). Conclusions: The CAREPlan program increased goals of care documentation by the primary oncologist at this single academic medical center. Clinical trial information: NCT03856463.