Background: Decisions about cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and intubation are a core part of advance care planning, particularly for seriously ill hospitalized patients. However, these discussions are often avoided.
Objectives: We aimed to examine the impact of a video decision tool for CPR and intubation on patients' choices, knowledge, medical orders, and discussions with providers.
Design: This was a prospective randomized trial conducted between 9 March 2011 and 1 June 2013 on the internal medicine services at two hospitals in Boston.
Participants: One hundred and fifty seriously ill hospitalized patients over the age of 60 with an advanced illness and a prognosis of 1 year or less were included. Mean age was 76 and 51% were women.
Intervention: Three-minute video describing CPR and intubation plus verbal communication of participants' preferences to their physicians (intervention) (N = 75) or control arm (usual care) (N = 75).
Main measures: The primary outcome was participants' preferences for CPR and intubation (immediately after viewing the video in the intervention arm). Secondary outcomes included: orders to withhold CPR/intubation, documented discussions with providers during hospitalization, and participants' knowledge of CPR/ intubation (five-item test, range 0-5, higher scores indicate greater knowledge).
Results: Intervention participants (vs. controls) were more likely not to want CPR (64% vs. 32%, p <0.0001) and intubation (72% vs. 43%, p < 0.0001). Intervention participants (vs. controls) were also more likely to have orders to withhold CPR (57% vs. 19%, p < 0.0001) and intubation (64% vs.19%, p < 0.0001) by hospital discharge, documented discussions about their preferences (81% vs. 43%, p < 0.0001), and higher mean knowledge scores (4.11 vs. 2.45; p < 0.0001).
Conclusions: Seriously ill patients who viewed a video about CPR and intubation were more likely not to want these treatments, be better informed about their options, have orders to forgo CPR/ intubation, and discuss preferences with providers.
Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT01325519 Registry Name: A prospective randomized trial using video images in advance care planning in seriously ill hospitalized patients.