Last Year of Life Study Cologne (LYOL-C-II)
Last Year of Life Study Cologne (LYOL-C-II) Modelling and evaluation of a minimally invasive two-sided intervention to deliver patient-centered care in hospitals
Scientific management: Prof. Dr. Raymond Voltz, Priv.-Doz. Dr. Dr. Julia Strupp (Department of Palliative Medicine, University Hospital of Cologne), Prof. Dr. Holger Pfaff (Centre Health Services Research (ZVFK))
Research associates: Jana Frey, Gloria Dust, in cooperation with the CoRe-Net subproject “OrgValue”
Duration: 05/2020 – 04/2023
Funding institution: Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Project Description
LYOL-C I has identified general hospital units as the most important checkpoints for transitions in the LYOL. Yet, satisfaction with hospitals – reported by relatives – is lowest of all health service providers. We hypothesize that using a two-sided trigger question intervention in hospitals will substantially improve value-based care in the LYOL: the trigger question based intervention helps professionals to identify patients in their last year of life, initiate conversations about their wishes and plan care aligned to preferences. Question Prompt Sheets (QPS) encourage discussions with professionals. The aims are to develop a two-sided intervention (i.e. applied by health care professionals and patients) a minimally invasive two-sided intervention for patient-centered care in the last year of life and to test the perceived benefits of, and possible barriers to, two-sided intervention in hospitals in Germany.
Method
Prospective interventional study with two arms and a pre-post design:
Phase I: Modelling
- Individual interviews (n=5-10) with staff members from various hospitals and patients´ representatives in Cologne to develop a two-sided intervention, consisting of the Surprise Question and a German version of the Supportive and Palliative Care Indicators Tool (SPICT-DETM) for providers and a Question Prompt Sheets (QPS) for patients.
Phase II: Exploratory Trial
- Survey to assess staff knowledge of End of Life Care and to evaluate the use of trigger question based intervention in a pre-post-design.
- LYOL-C II control patients (n=36, pre-intervention: Baseline during hospital stay, follow-ups after three months, at six, nine and twelve months.
- Two-sided intervention training (developed in Phase I) with staff members.
- LYOL-C II patients (n=36, post-intervention: Identical follow-up as in control group).
- Generalization and dissemination: e.g. CoRe-Net general assembly Socio-economic impact assessment (see OrgValue).
Kölner Kompetenznetzwerk aus Praxis und Forschung (CoRe-Net)
