Advance Care Planning: Communicating With Outpatients for Vital Informed Decisions

This study is investigating if the use of telehealth ACP Program will improve and sustain rates of ACP from the time that the intervention is implemented compared to two time periods prior to the intervention. The Comprehensive ACP Program combines two widely disseminated interventions to assess impact when used concurrently.

• One is VitalTalk clinician communication skills training (www.vitaltalk.org) during which the primary care clinicians will practice ACP with simulated patient actors under the guidance of a trained VitalTalk facilitator.
• The second is the ACP Decisions video decision aids (www.acpdecisions.org) which are directed to patients and provide education about ACP. This inclusive ACP approach treats patients and clinicians as equal stakeholders providing both with the communication skills and tools needed to make decisions about COVID-19 medical care before the toughest choices arise.
• The training is four cumulative hours, most of which is spent in communication skills work, and the remainder learning how to introduce the videos into one's practice. No patients participate in the training. The ambulatory practices included in this intervention gain access to the ACP Decisions videos, which can be introduced to patients. Videos may be seen in clinic or sent to patients' homes via an electronic or paper code.
• We will recruit up to 30 clinicians from participating clinics who completed the intervention training and ask them to complete a qualitative interview to learn about their experience with the ACP intervention.