Advanced Point-of-care Technology During In-home Assessment Among Older Adults

Advanced Use of Point-of-care Technology Versus Usual Care During In-home-assessment by Acute Community Nurses in Older Adults for Reducing Acute Hospital Admissions

Due to ageing-related physiological changes, diagnosing older adults is challenging. Delayed disease recognition lead to adverse health outcomes and increased hospitalisation, which is why there is a need to develop new procedures for timely diagnosis and treatment of older adults. Point-of-care technology, e.g. focused lung ultrasound scan and bedside analysis of blood samples (leucocytes with differential count, electrolytes and creatinine) carried out in the patients' home may support clinical decision-making, and potentially reduce acute hospital admissions.

The trial's overall aim is to investigate whether increased point-of-care technology, i.e. focused lung ultrasound scan and bedside blood analysis, used as in-home diagnostics in older adults with acute respiratory symptoms, can qualify the general practitioner's clinical decision-making for early treatment initiation and eventually reduce acute hospital admission.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Acute Illness; Acute Respiratory Disease
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Advanced point-of-care technology

Detailed Description

The trial is conducted in Kolding municipality in Denmark. Participants eligible for this study are people aged 65 years or older, referred to the Acute Community Health Care Service (ACHCS) in Kolding municipality for an in-home assessment.

Data collection:

In the control group, the Acute Community Nurses (ANC) will carry out usual care that involves a clinical inspection, measurements of vital signs (respiratory rate(breaths/min), saturation (%), blood pressure (mmHg), heart rate (beats/min), body temperature (celsius), and Glasgow Coma Scale), and point-of-care tests (POCT) for C-reactive protein (CRP) and haemoglobin.

In the intervention group, the ACN will carry out extended POCT besides usual care. Extended POCT covers a focused lung ultrasound scan (FLUS) and biochemical blood analyses. FLUS examination follows a standardized protocol (21). Biochemical analyses include sodium, potassium, creatinine, urea, and leucocytes with differential count.

In both control and intervention groups the ACN communicates the examination results to the participants' primary care physician (PCP) by telephone as well as an electronic written documentation. The findings will support the PCP in the clinical decision-making. The communication to the PCP is part of the usual care and is carried out in both groups.

Training of ACNs:

Prior to the study initiation, all ACNs are trained in FLUS examination, technical procedure of POCT biochemical blood-analysis, as well as in research methods with specific focus on study procedures to increase their adherence to and respect for to the randomization procedure and protocol.

Point-of-care technology used in the study:

FLUS is carried out using Lumify® C5-2 Curved Array Transducer (Philips Medical Systems, Bothell, WA), with a bandwidth of 5-2 megahertz (MHz) and scan depth up to 30 cm.

POCT on blood samples for creatinine and electrolytes are carried out using venous blood samples (collected in lithium/heparin vacutainers) and analysed immediately on the POCT instrument i-STAT® (Abbott, Inc., NJ, U.S.A.) using CHEM8 cassette.

POCT blood analysis for leucocyte differential count is carried out using venous blood samples (collected in EDTA-vacutainers) and analysed immediately on the POCT instrument HemoCue® WBF DIFF System (HemoCue AB, Ängelholm, Sweden) with dedicated micro-cuvettes.

POCT blood-analysis for CRP is carried out using blood samples obtained by finger-prick and analysed on the POCT instrument QuickRead go® (Orion Diagnostica, Oy).

Data-sources:

To assess co-morbidity, disabilities, utilization of primary care and health care services, death, and medical history external data sources will be applied for permission to access.

The Danish Health Data Authority is responsible for the national health registers containing data related to the health of the entire Danish population and services of the healthcare system. A unique personal identification number for all people living in Denmark makes it possible to link data across national health registers.

The Danish Health Data Authority will be applied to get access to the Danish National Patient Registry, the Danish Register of Causes of Death, The Danish National Prescription Registry, and the Danish National Health Service Register. The registers contain information about diseases, treatments, deaths, and health care utilization, and are needed to access information on comorbidity, time of death, medical history, treatment initiations or changes, and number of consultations at PCPs.

The Electronic Municipal Care Records (EOJ - Elektronisk Omsorgsjournal) registers the amount of home care the participants receive, and will be obtained at day 0 and at day 30 to investigate possible changes as a proxy of changes in functional level.

The hospital Electronic Patient Journal (EPJ) will be accessed by the primary investigator to register admissions, reason for admission and any complications during admission. The EPJ will be accessed at day 30 after the acute visit to register admissions, reasons for admission, length of admission, treatment during admission, functional decline during admission, and discharge diagnosis.

Data monitoring:

During the study, several checkpoints will be established to ensure adherence to protocol. Number of kits used will be noted every month to ensure no extra kits for POCT on biochemistry on blood samples are used as a violation to protocol. Time and date logging on each POCT device will be carried out each month to ensure adherence to protocol.

Sample size:

A clinically significant reduction of acute hospital admission is set to a 10% reduction. However, it is unknown how many patients are acutely admitted after the first visit of ACNs. Preliminary results from a pilot-study of the intervention (not yet published) showed that 21% of included participants were acutely admitted. We then assume to reduce hospital admissions by 10%, and to detect a reduction from 31% to 21% at a significance level 0.05 with a power of 80, a total of 602 participants are required (301 in each arm). Allowing for a 5 % drop out after randomisation, 316 in each arm are required (a total of 632 participants).

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 632
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Denmark
  • Region Syddanmark
    • Kolding, Region Syddanmark, Denmark, 6000
      • Siri Smedemark

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 65 years and older (Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• referred to the ACHCS in Kolding Municipality for in-home assessment
• dyspnoea
• cough
• fever
• fall
• functional decline defined as either subjective (not able to perform normal daily activities as usual) or objective functional decline (increased need of home care)

Exclusion Criteria:

• moderate to severe cognitive impairment
• antibiotic treatment

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Diagnostic
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control - Usual Care; Participants in the control-arm will undergo usual care. This covers clinical inspection, vital parameters (respiratory rate(breaths/min), saturation (%), blood pressure (mmHg), heart rate (beats/min), body temperature (celsius), and Glasgow Coma Scale) , and point-of-care blood-test for CRP and haemoglobin
Experimental: Intervention - Advanced point-of-care technology; Participants in the intervention-arm will undergo usual care as well as advanced point-of-care technology.	Other: Advanced point-of-care technology; The intervention consists of: focused lung ultrasound scan(FLUS); venous blood samples for leucocytes with 5-part differential count, creatinin, sodium, potassium, urea

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Admission ≤ 30-days	Proportion of Admissions during 30 days follow-up	30 days

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Mortality ≤ 30-days	Proportion of diseased participants in the intervention group and control group after inclusion during 30 days follow-up	30 days
Acute admissions at day 0	Proportion of acute admissions on visit day (day 0)	Day 0
Length of hospital admission	Number of days admitted to acute-care hospital, long-term acute-care hospital or in an emergency department.	30 days
Hospital-free days ≤ 30-days	Number of days alive that is spend outside of an acute-care hospital, long-term acute-care hospital or in an emergency department, including days spent wholly or in part under "observation" status	30 days
Complications during hospital admission	Number of complications registered in the electronic patient journal during admission including delirium and fall	30 days
Treatment initiations or changes at day 0	Number of treatment initiation or changed at day 0 including antibiotics, diuretics, inhalation medication, prednisolone, iv fluids, iv antibiotics	Day 0
Treatment initiation or changes ≤ 30-day	Number of treatment initiation or changed during 30 days follow-up including antibiotics, diuretics, inhalation medication, prednisolone, iv fluids, iv antibiotics	30 days
Functional level	Measured by proxy assessment of functional level: Change in amount of home care during 30 days follow-up; number of change of dwelling	30 days
Re-referrals to the Acute Community Health Care Service	Number of re-referrals to the ACHCS	30 days
Contact to the PCP ≤ 30-days	Number of contact to the PCP during 30 days follow-up	30 days

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
The diagnostic accuracy of FLUS conducted by ACNs	ACNs conclusions are index test and FLUS-specialist conclusions used as reference test.	7 days

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Southern Denmark
• Collaborators: Odense University Hospital; Region of Southern Denmark; Odense Patient Data Explorative Network; AP Moeller Foundation; Karen Elise Jensen Foundation; Hartmann Fonden; Kolding Municipality, Denmark; Merchant L. F. Foghts Foundation; Director Emil C Hertz and wife Inger Hertz Foundation; Gangsted Foundation
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Siri A Smedemark, MD, Department of Clinical Reasearch, University of Southern Denmark; Study Chair: Karen Andersen-Ranberg, Prof, MD, Odense University Hospital

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 14, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 18, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): November 18, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 14, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 14, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): September 19, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): November 29, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 28, 2023
• Last Verified: November 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: older adults; geriatric; acute illness; acute home care; pre-hospital care; point-of-care technology; acute community nurse; focused lung ultrasound scan; FLUS
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Respiration Disorders; Respiratory Tract Diseases
• Other Study ID Numbers: S-20220050

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No