Palliative Video Consultation and Symptom Distress Among Rural Inpatients: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Palliative care has been shown to improve important patient outcomes but is rarely available in small or rural hospitals.

To assess whether culturally based palliative care video consultation could improve symptom distress compared with usual inpatient care without palliative care.

Recruitment for this multisite, single-blind randomized clinical trial occurred from July 20, 2020, to December 20, 2023; data collection was completed on January 15, 2024. A community-aided approach was used to recruit inpatients from 3 rural hospitals lacking palliative care services in Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina. Self-identified non-Hispanic Black or African American and non-Hispanic White adults aged 55 years or older admitted with a serious chronic illness and a willing caregiver were invited to participate. Randomization was stratified by site and race.

Participants were randomized 1:1 to Community Tele-Pal, culturally based video consultation by a palliative care specialist followed by research coordinator (RC) contacts 3 and 6 days after video consultation (intervention arm), or to routine hospital care (control arm).

The primary outcome was the between-group difference in the change in patient-reported symptom distress from baseline to day 7, assessed by the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS; range, 0-90; lower scores indicate lower symptom distress). Secondary outcomes were quality of life (QOL; Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System global physical and mental health mean T scores), resource use (emergency department visits and hospital readmissions), and an exploratory outcome of feeling heard and understood.

A total of 209 patients were randomized (104 to usual care; 105 to the intervention); mean (SD) age was 73.3 (8.3) years, 120 (57.4%) were female, 58 (27.8%) were Black or African American, 157 (75.1%) were retired, and 75 (35.9%) had a Palliative Performance Scale score less than 70% (indicating need for functional assistance). On day 7, the mean (SE) ESAS score change from baseline was -11.4 (1.5) points in the intervention group and -7.3 (1.5) points in the control group; the between-group difference in change in ESAS scores was not statistically significant (Westfall d, -0.28; 95% CI, -0.56 to 0.01; P = .055). The mean (SE) day 7 between-group difference in ESAS score of -4.0 (1.8) points met the criteria for a minimal clinically important difference of 3 to 4 points. No between-group differences were observed for QOL, resource use, or feeling heard and understood.

In this randomized clinical trial, the intervention was not associated with reduced symptom distress at day 7 vs baseline or with improved QOL or reduced resource use compared with usual care. However, the between-group difference in the ESAS score met the criteria for a minimal clinically important difference of 3 to 4 points. Palliative video consultation to reduce health care inequities for hospitalized rural-dwelling individuals may warrant further investigation.

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03767517.