Time of clinic appointment and advance care planning discussions in oncology.

Authors

null

Likhitha Kolla

University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA

Likhitha Kolla, Jinbo Chen, Ravi Bharat Parikh

Organizations

University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

Research Funding

U.S. National Institutes of Health
U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Background: Early advance care planning (ACP) in oncology increases goal-concordant care. However, time pressures during a busy clinic day may prevent clinicians from engaging in necessary conversations. Given prior evidence of suboptimal clinician decision-making in non-oncology settings in latter parts of a clinic day, we investigated the association between appointment time and likelihood of ACP conversations. Methods: We used electronic health record data to identify medical oncology encounters. We ascertained the presence of ACP from either (1) a specific ACP note type in the EHR, or (2) an ACP smart phrase in clinical progress notes. ACP documentation was used as a surrogate for ACP discussions, as ACP documentation is a quality metric used by organizations including the ASCO’s Quality Oncology Practice Initiative. Appointment times between 8am and 4pm were separated by the hour. Oncology clinicians usually practiced in a morning (8am to 11am) or afternoon (12pm to 4pm) session. Time was indicated by grouping appointment times in the order they occur in a session. We used generalized estimating equations, clustering by clinician, to estimate the probability of ACP documentation. Session hour (1-5) was included as a categorical and continuous variable. We adjusted for patient clinical and demographic features. We also performed a sensitivity analysis using a restricted sample that excluded encounters from 12pm. Results: Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for ACP documentation rates were significantly lower for all hours of a session after the earliest hour (Table), with consistent results in the sensitivity analysis. Conclusions: Oncology clinicians’ likelihood of having advance care planning conversations decreases as a clinic session progresses. Decision fatigue and falling behind schedule could be contributing reasons for this effect. Lower rates of discussions about goals of care later in a session could result in more aggressive end-of-life treatments. Proactive scheduling of high-risk patients earlier in a clinic session or scheduling separate visits for advance care planning could facilitate necessary conversations and should be further studied.

Adjusted odds of advance care planning by session hour.

aMain model
bSensitivity analysis (excluding 12pm)
Hour
Adjusted Odds ratio (OR) (95% CI)
P value
Hours
Adjusted OR
P value
1
1.00 (Reference)

1
1.00 (Reference)

2
0.79 (0.65-0.93)
.03
2
0.87 (0.70-1.07)
.21
3
0.80 (0.66-0.95)
.05
3
0.80 (0.64-1.00)
.05
4
0.67 (0.58-0.86)
.001
4
0.72 (0.57-0.92)
.01
5
0.86 (0.85-0.96)
.60



Overall time trend
0.91 (0.84-0.97)
.006
Overall time trend
0.90 (0.83-0.97)
.007

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Abstract Details

Meeting

2022 ASCO Quality Care Symposium

Session Type

Poster Session

Session Title

Poster Session B

Track

Palliative and Supportive Care,Technology and Innovation in Quality of Care,Quality, Safety, and Implementation Science

Sub Track

End-of-Life Care

Citation

J Clin Oncol 40, 2022 (suppl 28; abstr 185)

DOI

10.1200/JCO.2022.40.28_suppl.185

Abstract #

185

Poster Bd #

A10

Abstract Disclosures

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