Transitional Palliative Care in End-stage Heart Failure

August 21, 2017 updated by: Frances Kam Yuet WONG, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Effects of a Transitional Palliative Care Model on Patients With End-stage Heart Failure

Palliative care for end-stage organ failure patients has been included as one of the key programs to be implemented in 2011-2012 in the Hospital Authority, Hong Kong. Among all the disease groups, end-stage heart failure patients have the highest mortality rate. Patients at the end stage of heart failure have health concerns shared by other end-stage patients including cancer patients. Many guidelines, local and world-wide, have advocated a palliative approach of care for those heart failure patients who are at end stage. Studies have shown that end-stage heart failure patients tend to have frequent emergency room visits and repeated hospital admissions. Also, these patients suffer from a number of health problems that adversely affect their Quality Of Life.

There is scarcity of experimental studies informing practitioners which models work best for palliative patients in Hong Kong. There were randomized controlled trials conducted outside Hong Kong which suggest multidisciplinary approach of palliative care is possible to reduce readmissions but evidence is not present for other outcomes such as symptom control and carer burden.

In an attempt to fill knowledge gap and inform practice using evidence, this study is launched to compare the effects of a customary hospital-based palliative heart failure care and an interventional Home-based Palliative heart failure Program.

Hypothesis

  • there is no difference in health care utilization for end-stage heart failure patients between the customary hospital-based group and the Home based palliative heart failure program group
  • there is no difference in evaluated health outcomes (functional status, symptom intensity, and satisfaction with care) between the customary hospital-based group and the Home based palliative heart failure program group
  • there is no difference in perceived health outcomes (quality of life, caregiver burden) between the customary hospital-based group and the Home based palliative heart failure program group
  • there is no difference in cost effectiveness between the customary hospital-based group and the Home based palliative heart failure program group
  • there is no difference In patients' lived experiences between the customary hospital-based group and the Home based palliative heart failure program group

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

As described

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

84

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Hong Kong
      • Hong Kong, Hong Kong
        • Grantham Hospital
      • Hong Kong, Hong Kong
        • Haven of Hope Hospital
      • Hong Kong, Hong Kong
        • United Christian Hospital

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Ability to speak Cantonese
  • Living within the hospital service area
  • Ability to be contacted by phone

  • Identified as end-stage heart failure eligible for palliative care, guided by Prognostic Indicator Guidance, National Gold Standards Framework,to fulfill at least two of the indicators below:

    (i) Congestive heart failure New York Heart Association stage III or IV (ii) Patient thought to be in the last year of life by the care team (iii) Repeated hospital admissions with symptoms of heart failure (3 hospital admissions within one year) (iv) Existence of physical or psychological symptoms despite optimal tolerated therapy

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Discharged to nursing home or other institution
  • Inability to communicate
  • Diagnosed with severe psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Usual Care + Transitional Care Model
Transitional Care, Evidence-based symptom management, Protocol-driven home visit and telephone follow-up, Trained nurse case manager and volunteer partnership
Behavioral: Transitional Care Model
Symptom assessment and management, care goal setting, post-discharge support
Behavioral: Usual care
Usual care is the routine practice in the hospital
Active Comparator: Usual Care
Usual care
Behavioral: Usual care
Usual care is the routine practice in the hospital

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Healthcare utilization
Time Frame: up to 12 months
The time from hospital discharge to hospital readmission using hospital clinical management system to retrieve data
up to 12 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Quality of Life
Time Frame: baseline, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 month
Change from baseline in quality of life on the palliative specific McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire Hong Kong version (MQOL-HK) at 1 month; change from baseline in MQOL-HK at 3 months; change from baseline in MQOL-HK at 6 months; change from baseline in MQOL-HK at 12 months
baseline, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 month
Quality of Life
Time Frame: Baseline, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months
Change from baseline in quality of life on the heart failure specific Chronic Heart Failure Questionnaire-Chinese version (CHQ) at 1 month; change from baseline in CHQ score at 3 months; change from baseline in CHQ score at 6 months; change from baseline in CHQ score at 12 months
Baseline, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months
Functional status
Time Frame: Baseline, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months
Change from baseline in functional status on the Palliative Performance Scale (PPS) at 1 month; change from baseline in PPS at 3 months; change from baseline in PPS at 6 months; change from baseline in PPS at 12 months
Baseline, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months
Symptom intensity
Time Frame: Baseline, 1 month, 3 month, 6 month, 12 month
Change from baseline in symptom intensity on the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) at 1 month; change from baseline in ESAS score at 3 month; change from baseline in ESAS score at 6 month; change from baseline in ESAS score at 12 month.
Baseline, 1 month, 3 month, 6 month, 12 month
Satisfaction with care
Time Frame: 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months
Change from 1 month in satisfaction with care on the 15-item questionnaire developed by the principal investigator which validity confirmed by an expert panel and reported test-retest reliability of .87 (Sat-care) at 3 month; change from 1 month in Sat-care score at 6 months; change from 1 month in Sat-care score at 12 months
1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months
Caregiver burden
Time Frame: Baseline, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months
Change from baseline in caregiver burden on the Zarit Caregiver Burden Scale (ZCBS) at 1 month; change from baseline in ZCBS score at 3 months; change from baseline in ZCBS score at 6 months; change from baseline in ZCBS score at 12 months
Baseline, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Frances KY Wong, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

January 1, 2013

Primary Completion (Actual)

February 1, 2016

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2016

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 7, 2014

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 12, 2014

First Posted (Estimate)

March 13, 2014

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

August 22, 2017

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 21, 2017

Last Verified

August 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • PolyU5492

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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