Development of a cognitive model for advance care planning discussions: results from a quality improvement initiative

Residents struggle with advance care planning (ACP) discussions in the inpatient setting, and may not be aware of newer models for ACP that stress the importance of giving prognostic information and making a recommendation about cardiopulmonary resuscitation to patients and families.

A controlled study of a cognitive model for ACP embedded in a quality improvement (QI) project.

In the setting of a QI project for medical residents and interdisciplinary staff, we developed and implemented a cognitive model of ACP discussions that involved two types of meetings for patients: (1) information-sharing meetings for seriously ill but clinically stable patients and (2) decision-making meetings for clinically unstable patients. Patients on the intervention floor were significantly more likely to have a discussion about goals of care (33.8%) than patients on the control floor (21.2%, p = < 0.001) and significantly more likely to have a limitation of life-sustaining treatment upon discharge (19.1% vs. 13.9%, p = 0.04).

For both residents and interdisciplinary staff, application of a cognitive model that clearly defines goals and expectations for ACP discussions prior to meeting with patients and families improves rates of ACP discussions.