Impact of an Advance Care Planning Video Intervention on Care of Short-Stay Nursing Home Patients

To assess whether an advance care planning (ACP) video intervention impacts care among short-stay nursing home (NH) patients.

PRagmatic trial of Video Education in Nursing Homes (PROVEN) was a pragmatic cluster randomized clinical trial.

A total of 360 NHs (N = 119 intervention, N = 241 control) owned by two healthcare systems.

A total of 2,538 and 5,290 short-stay patients with advanced dementia or cardiopulmonary disease (advanced illness) in the intervention and control arms, respectively; 23,302 and 50,815 short-stay patients without advanced illness in the intervention and control arms, respectively.

Five ACP videos were available on tablets or online. Designated champions at each intervention facility were instructed to offer a video to patients (or proxies) on admission. Control facilities used usual ACP practices.

Follow-up time was at most 100 days for each patient. Outcomes included hospital transfers per 1000 person-days alive and the proportion of patients experiencing more than one hospital transfer, more than one burdensome treatment (tube-feeding, parenteral therapy, invasive mechanical intervention, and intensive care unit admission), and hospice enrollment. Champions recorded whether a video was offered in the patients' electronic medical record.

There was no significant reduction in hospital transfers per 1000 person-days alive in the intervention versus control groups with advanced illness (rate (95% confidence interval (CI)), 12.3 (11.6-13.1) vs 13.2 (12.5-13.7); rate difference: -0.8; 95% CI = -1.8-0.2)). There was a nonsignificant reduction in hospital transfers per 1000 person-days alive in the intervention versus control among short-stay patients without advanced illness. Secondary outcomes did not differ between groups among patients with and without advanced illness. Based on champion only reports 14.2% and 15.3% of eligible short-stay patients with and without advanced illness were shown videos, respectively.

An ACP video program did not significantly reduce hospital transfers, burdensome treatment, or hospice enrollment among short-stay NH patients; however, fidelity to the intervention was low.