E-Coaching: IVR-Enhanced Care Transition Support for Complex Patients
Grant
Overview
Affiliation
View All
Overview
description
DESCRIPTION (Provided by Applicant): For complex medical patients, the transition from hospital to home-based care is a vulnerable period, placing the patient at high risk for adverse events, including the experience of a medical error or loss of community tenure. Recent successful studies have used a Care Transition Intervention (CTI), using a nurse who conducts home visits, telephone follow-up, and who provides assistance at and after discharge. Although successful, this model is costly and is not feasible in settings serving geographically dispersed populations. We propose a cost-efficient technological solution to the problems presented by the traditional CTI through "e-Coach," an Interactive-Voice-Response-supported (IVR) Care Transition coaching intervention. We propose to develop and evaluate "e-Coach," by performing a randomized controlled trial of this intervention versus a usual care comparison group. To our knowledge, a conceptually grounded IVR-supported care transition intervention has not, to date, been rigorously tested. Our Specific Aims are to: 1) Randomize 720 patients at high risk of transition-related errors (complex adult patients discharged alive after a hospitalization with congestive heart failure (CHF) or chronic obstructive pulmonary (COPD) disease from a geographically diverse area including many rural areas across Alabama and the South) to an IVR-supported care transition program ("e-Coach") versus a usual care comparison group. The IVR system will actively call patients at multiple (daily for first 4 weeks) intervals after discharge. In a stepped-care approach, the IVR will be further supported by a Care Transition nurse who monitors patient symptoms through the e-Coach IVR and supports patient self management through telephone-based interactions when needed, up to 2 months after discharge; 2) Evaluate use of the e-Coach by patients and healthcare providers; 3) Evaluate the impact of the e-Coach on patient outcomes, including 90 day re-hospitalizations, successful community tenure over a 3 month period, medication discrepancies, and patient self-efficacy based on the previously validated Care Transition Measure; and 4) Quantify the cost associated with the e-Coach. If e-Coach is successful, it is likely to be easily disseminated and could result in substantial avoidance of medical errors in the hospital-to-home transition period along with notable reductions in the risks and costs of re-hospitalizations.
