ENCOMPASS: Expansion Study A, RCT

NCT ID: NCT04790604

Last Updated: 2024-05-23

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 96 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2021-01-22
• Study Completion Date: 2023-07-03

Brief Summary

Some patients living with multiple long-term health conditions have difficulty accessing the services they need, despite available primary care and community resources. Patient navigation programs may help those with complex health conditions to improve their care and outcomes. Community health navigators (CHNs) are community members who help guide patients through the health care system. CHNs are not health professionals like a doctor or nurse, but they are specially trained to help patients get the most out of their health care and connect them to resources. The ENCOMPASS program of research evaluates a patient navigation program that connects patients living with long-term health conditions to CHNs. To understand if the CHN program can be scaled to a provincial level, the ENCOMPASS program of research is expanding to select primary care settings across Alberta. This study implements and evaluates the CHN program at Edmonton Oliver Primary Care Network in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Detailed Description

Community Health Navigators (CHNs) are defined as community health workers that provide patient navigation. Based on evidence to date, CHNs for chronic disease management are likely to beneficially impact patient experience, clinical outcomes and costs; however, contextual evidence is lacking given that most studies to date have been conducted in the United States. In Canada, patient navigation programs currently exist in only a few settings (primarily cancer treatment and transitional care), with few navigation programs implemented in chronic disease care.

The ENCOMPASS program of research was initiated in 2016, when researchers with the University of Calgary's Interdisciplinary Chronic Disease Collaboration partnered with Mosaic Primary Care Network (PCN) to develop, implement and evaluate a community health navigation program for patients with multiple chronic conditions. The program was based on a systematic literature review and refined in consultation with key stakeholders. A cluster-randomized controlled trial is currently ongoing with Mosaic PCN to determine the impact of the program on acute care use, patient-reported outcomes and experience, and disease-specific clinical outcomes (NCT03077386).

Alberta Primary Care Networks (PCNs) are comprised of groups of family physicians and other health care professionals working together to provide comprehensive patient care to Albertans. To understand if the community health navigation program can be feasibly scaled and spread to PCNs across Alberta, we are expanding research to examine and evaluate community health navigation program implementation to other geographic areas and populations. This study expands the ENCOMPASS program of research to Edmonton Oliver PCN, which represents over 170 physician members and serves approximately 131,000 patients. The current study employs the RE-AIM framework (reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance) to examine the scalability of the community health navigation program.

The objectives of this study are to (1) assess the impact of the intervention on the target population and health system (effectiveness); (2) explore the feasibility and appropriateness of practical intervention scale-up (reach, adoption, implementation, and maintenance), and (3) identify the required resources and infrastructure necessary to maintain and scale the intervention provincially.

The effectiveness of the community health navigator program will be studied using a two-armed, pragmatic, randomized waitlist-controlled trial. This study will employ patient-level block randomization with research staff blinded to block size. Randomization will be concealed and computer-generated. Primary outcomes will be assessed using administrative health data. Secondary outcomes will be measured using a patient health survey administered by a research assistant at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months. A concurrent qualitative study will provide contextual information on the effectiveness of the community health navigator program from patient, provider, and CHN perspectives. Process evaluation metrics and interviews with program stakeholders will inform the feasibility and sustainability of the community health navigator program in Alberta PCNs.

Conditions

Hypertension; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2; Chronic Kidney Diseases; Ischemic Heart Disease; Congestive Heart Failure; Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease; Asthma

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Intervention

Community health navigator program for six months.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Community Health Navigator Program

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Patients will be matched to a community health navigator (CHN) who will conduct a needs assessment to determine the frequency of meetings. A CHN may perform any of the following: providing information to a patient's health care provider, translation, advocating for the patient, connecting the patient with resources (e.g., social, financial, insurance), helping patients set health-related goals, facilitating health care referrals and appointments, and monitoring appointments. These activities may require the CHN to be physically present at appointments or have direct contact with the patient's health care provider. Goal setting and support will be provided in-person or over the telephone using motivational interviewing principles.

Control

Waitlist control: six-month waiting period followed by six months of community health navigator program.

Group Type: OTHER

Community Health Navigator Program

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Patients will be matched to a community health navigator (CHN) who will conduct a needs assessment to determine the frequency of meetings. A CHN may perform any of the following: providing information to a patient's health care provider, translation, advocating for the patient, connecting the patient with resources (e.g., social, financial, insurance), helping patients set health-related goals, facilitating health care referrals and appointments, and monitoring appointments. These activities may require the CHN to be physically present at appointments or have direct contact with the patient's health care provider. Goal setting and support will be provided in-person or over the telephone using motivational interviewing principles.

Interventions

Community Health Navigator Program

Patients will be matched to a community health navigator (CHN) who will conduct a needs assessment to determine the frequency of meetings. A CHN may perform any of the following: providing information to a patient's health care provider, translation, advocating for the patient, connecting the patient with resources (e.g., social, financial, insurance), helping patients set health-related goals, facilitating health care referrals and appointments, and monitoring appointments. These activities may require the CHN to be physically present at appointments or have direct contact with the patient's health care provider. Goal setting and support will be provided in-person or over the telephone using motivational interviewing principles.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Other Intervention Names

ENCOMPASS Program

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Poorly controlled hypertension (most recent systolic blood pressure > 160 mmHg or labile);
• Poorly controlled diabetes (A1C > 9% on at least one occasion within the past year or labile);
• Stage 3b or greater chronic kidney disease (estimated glomerular filtration rate < 45 mL/min/1.73m2 in past year);
• Established ischemic heart disease (at least one instance of a physician billing diagnosis with a relevant International Classification of Diseases, 9th Edition [ICD-9] code recorded in electronic medical record (EMR), or known to health care team);
• Congestive heart failure (at least one instance of a physician billing diagnosis with a relevant ICD-9 code recorded in EMR, or known to health care team);
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease OR Asthma with at least two visits in the past year (at least 2 instances of a physician billing diagnosis with a relevant ICD-9 code, or known to health care team).

Exclusion Criteria

• Patient unable to provide informed consent;
• Patient residing in long-term care facility;
• Health care provider discretion.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

University of Alberta

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of Calgary

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Kerry A McBrien, MD, MPH

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Calgary

Locations

Edmonton Oliver Primary Care Network

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Countries

Canada

References

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Other Identifiers

REB19-1766

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id