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NCT03724695Completed

Advanced Heart Care at Home

Advanced Heart Care at Home (AHCAH); a Pragmatic Randomized Trial for Clinicians Nudged to AHCAH, a Heart Failure Specific Home Palliative Care Services

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Last updated 26 Jan 2026

Brief summary (registry, in English)

End-of-life (EOL) care for heart failure (HF) patients includes high healthcare utilization and costs, in part due to the lack of integration of optimal HF management and home-based palliative care. In a pilot quality improvement project of clinician "nudges" to enroll seriously ill HF patients in a home-based, integrated HF and palliative care platform, the investigators demonstrated decreased healthcare utilization and costs and increased hospice utilization among seriously ill HF patients. The investigators propose a pragmatic randomized trial for clinicians of seriously ill HF patients admitted to three University of Pennsylvania Health System Hospitals, randomly assigning an opt-in approach (usual care) versus a "nudge" or opt-out approach of a visit from an Advanced Heart Care at Home (AHCAH) liaison to clinicians of eligible patients to discuss and enroll in the AHCAH program, to rigorously and scientifically evaluate clinical, utilization, and cost outcomes among high-risk HF patients at the EOL, and to promote physician uptake of best practices.

Status (registry)
Completed
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
709 (actual)
First submitted
28 Oct 2018
Start date
13 Nov 2018
Primary completion date
29 Oct 2024
Lead sponsor
University of Pennsylvania
NCT number
NCT03724695

What you commit to

  • Study type: Interventional
  • Participants enrolled: 709
  • From 13 Nov 2018 to the primary completion date, 29 Oct 2024
  • 1 site in 1 country
  • Visits and tests: ask the trial team, the registry does not list them

Built from the registry fields of ClinicalTrials.gov. It describes the study, not your situation.

Who cannot take part

Copied verbatim from ClinicalTrials.gov and grouped by topic. Only the trial team decides who can take part.

Prior treatment

  • Prior hospitalization during study period

Age

  • Less than 18 years of age

Other

  • Pregnant women
  • Incarcerated patients
  • Homeless patients
  • Reside outside of Caring Way's geographic catchment
  • Patients without an identifiable primary physician for AHCAH staff to communicate with as determined by the AHCAH liaison via EPIC

Who the study is looking for

  • At least 18 years of age
  • Reside within Caring Way's geographic catchment
  • Heart Failure ICD code from any previous healthcare encounter (inpatient or outpatient) in the 12 months prior to index hospitalization
  • Admitted to a cardiology or hospitalist service
  • Palliative Connect score greater than 0.3
  • Index hospitalization during study period

Age in the registry: 18 years to - · Sex: All · Does not accept healthy volunteers

Full criteria on ClinicalTrials.gov

Sites (1)

Sites in registry order. Save your city in your profile to sort them by distance.

SiteCityCountrySite status
Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine
Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status
PhiladelphiaUnited StatesUnknown status

This page is information, not medical advice. Discuss any trial with your doctor.