Encouraging Older Adults and Adults With Serious Illness to Designate a Health Care Proxy

Conditions

• Designating a Healthcare Proxy

Eligibility Criteria

Sex

ALL

Age

18 Years - N/A

Healthy Volunteers

Not accepted

Interventions

• Mailer — BEHAVIORAL
  Patient mailers will ask the patient to name a healthcare proxy at their next primary care visit.
• Provider Request — BEHAVIORAL
  Patient mailers will be sent from and signed by the patient's provider for their next scheduled primary care visit.
• Pre-commitment Prompt — BEHAVIORAL
  Patient mailers will contain a box that asks the patient to bring a form with their choice for a healthcare proxy to their next primary care visit.

Study Details

This study is a Stage III randomized trial to encourage patients in advance of a health care appointment to designate a healthcare proxy. Patients will be randomly assigned to receive a mailer containing information about designating a healthcare proxy, or to not receive any mailer. For patients assigned to receive a mailer, the mailer will differ by the presence or absence of a patient pre-commitment prompt, and contain a personalized provider request or a generic health system request. The work will evaluate the randomized trial and identify factors that predict intervention effectiveness.

Key Dates

Start date

Jun 1, 2026

Status verified

Jun 2026

Primary completion

Jul 1, 2027

Completion

Sep 30, 2027

Study Design

Enrollment

50,000 participants (estimated)

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

FACTORIAL

Primary purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Arms

• Experimental: Provider Mailer with a Pre-commitment Prompt
  Patients will receive a mailer containing a pre-commitment prompt to bring in a form listing their healthcare proxy to their next primary care visit. The mailer will be sent from and signed by their primary care provider.
• Experimental: Health System Mailer with a Pre-commitment Prompt
  Patients will receive a mailer containing a pre-commitment prompt to bring in a form listing their healthcare proxy to their next primary care visit. The mailer will be sent from and signed by the health system
• Experimental: Provider Mailer without a Pre-commitment Prompt
  Patients will receive a mailer, but it will not contain a pre-commitment prompt to bring in a form listing their healthcare proxy to their next primary care visit. The mailer will be sent from and signed by the patient's provider.
• Experimental: Health System Mailer without a Pre-commitment Prompt
  Patients will receive a mailer, but it will not contain a pre-commitment prompt to bring in a form listing their healthcare proxy to their next primary care visit. The mailer will be sent from and signed by the health system.
• No Intervention: No Mailer Control
  Patients will not receive a mailer.

Primary Outcome Measure

Proportion of patients with EHR-documented healthcare proxy [ Time Frame: Within 30 days of the patient's first scheduled primary care visit ]

Locations (1)

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