PROJECT SUMMARY Approximately 3 million known persons living with dementia (PLWD) visit the emergency department (ED) annually. This is likely an underestimated value as most cases of dementia go unrecognized in the ED. Most PLWD are treated and released, implying that they do not need medical oversight and are on the road to recovery. Yet, for PLWD, the ED-to-home transition is associated with increased risk of ED revisits, adverse events, and mortality. The critical need for effective care transition interventions for PLWD has been identified by the NIA-funded Geriatric Emergency Care Applied Research 2.0 Network – Advancing Dementia Care. Our adaptation of the Coleman’s Care Transitions Intervention, delivered by community paramedics for community- dwelling older adults transitioning from ED-to-home, reduced the odds of ED revisits within 30 days by 75% among patients with cognitive impairment. These results lay the foundation for testing the Community Paramedic-Led Transitions Intervention (CPTI) in a large-scale embedded pragmatic clinical trial to rigorously evaluate its effectiveness in improving the ED-to-home transitions for PLWD. In this study, we will test our hypothesis that the CPTI will improve the ED-to-home transition and utilization outcomes for PLWD, both alone and when combined with other interventions. We will leverage community paramedicine, an innovative and new health care model where paramedics function outside their traditional roles to deliver community health interventions. We will optimize the CPTI across two sites in coordination with the Nurse-led Telephonic Care and ED Care Redesign for PLWD, assessing intervention acceptability and engagement. We will test the CPTI’s effectiveness alone and in combination with the other interventions in an 80-center, cluster- randomized, multifactorial embedded pragmatic clinical trial for community-dwelling PLWD and their care partners experiencing an ED visit by analyzing ED revisit rates, hospitalizations, and total days at home following an index ED visit. We will also determine site, provider, and patient-level characteristics that are associated with CPTI outcome variations using the RE-AIM framework, such that future implementation can adequately address these care gaps. Upon its completion, this study will address the important gap of overlooked ED-to-home transitions for PLWD receiving ED care. By rigorously investigating the CPTI, we will provide critical evidence on ways to improve PLWD health outcomes and enable underutilized healthcare resources for this vulnerable population.
PROJECT SUMMARY In persons living with dementia (PLWD), an Emergency Department (ED) visit is a critical event and an opportunity to address the unmet needs that preceded the visit. Our multiple PI (mPI) team have together conducted cluster-randomized, multi-site trials in >50 EDs as well as multiple hospice and home health agencies, and are uniquely poised to address previous shortcomings in the development of scalable models of care for PLWD. Through this work, and that of our co-investigators, we have developed and tested three interventions relevant to PLWD and their care partners who visit the ED: 1) emergency care redesign (UH3AT009844) of new and intentional workflows for emergency providers reinforced by digital alerts and structured collaboration between sites, already shown to increase identification of advance care plans and enlisted multidisciplinary support; 2) a nurse-led telephonic care program (PCORI) that increased advance care planning and connected patients to hospice; and 3) a community paramedic-led structured coaching intervention (R01AG050504) that reduced the odds of an ED revisit within 30 days by 75%. Building on this evidence, the overarching goal of EDs LEading the Transformation of Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care (ED- LEAD) is to turn an ED visit from a crisis into an opportunity to improve the well-being of PLWD and their care partners. ED-LEAD will be embedded in a diverse group of 14 health systems, including 80 EDs with substantial racial and ethnic diversity, with the ED as the unit of randomization. An Administrative Core will oversee completion of all administrative milestones including integrating expertise and guidance from two NIA- funded networks and an External Advisory Board. An Implementation Core will: 1) harmonize core functions and processes; 2) optimize clinical decision support; and 3) and enable intervention fidelity across the three interventions. Finally, a Statistical Analysis Core will provide biostatistical and data management support. Our specific aims are to: 1) optimize a concurrently run emergency care redesign, nurse-led telephonic care, and community paramedic-led transitions intervention in PLWD for feasibility, fidelity and usability in two EDs; 2) study the effectiveness of these three interventions, alone and in combination, for PLWD with serious illness in a cluster-randomized multifactorial trial embedded within 80 EDs on: ED revisits, hospitalizations, and healthy days at home following the index ED visit; and 3) determine site, provider, patient, and care partner-level characteristics within a diverse population associated with variation in implementation of each intervention. ED- LEAD will address shortcomings noted in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report on PLWD by providing high-quality, real-world evidence that may improve the lives and reduce suffering of PLWD and their care partners. It will address key strategic goals of NIA and the National Alzheimer’s Plan to “implement and evaluate new care models to support effective care transitions”, and provide health systems with the necessary evidence to scale interventions for this vulnerable population.
