POST Facilitation for Community Dwelling Older Adults (POST-RCT)
Key facts
- Who runs it
- Indiana University
- Where
- Indianapolis, United StatesSee the 3 sites
- Trial code
- Status
- Completed
- People taking part
- 389 people enrolled
- Started
- 11 May 2020
- Ended
- 29 Jul 2025
- Type of study
- Interventional, 2 groups
- Treatments tested
- POST Facilitation
- Home Safety Evaluation
- Record updated
- 26 November 2025
Who can take part
- Age
- 65 years and older
- Sex
- Women and men
- Healthy volunteers
- Cannot take part
The registry criteria, word for word
Show all 15 criteriaShow less
Who can take part
- Patients:
- 65 or older
- have decision making capacity OR a qualified surrogate decision maker
- must meet one of the following index scores:; Gagne Mortality Index score of 7 or greater (30% mortality risk); Medicare Criteria for Hospice Admission: Functional Assessment Staging Tool (FAST) Index (Advanced Alzheimer's disease and related dementia) 7c or higher plus one or more comorbid conditions; Seattle Heart Failure Model (congestive heart failure): score conferring a one-year mortality risk of 30% or greater; Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status (metastatic cancer): Patients with an impaired performance score (greater than zero); Liu Comorbidity Index (End Stage Renal Disease): Patients with a score of 10 or greater; blood results (B), age (A), respiratory variables (airflow obstruction, exacerbations, smoking) (R) and comorbidities (C) (BARC) Index for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): high risk group; Model for End Stage Liver Disease (MELD) Index
- must be able to pass consent verification
- must not be enrolled in hospice
- must not have an acute illness
- must give patient's provider opportunity to review the "surprise question" (e.g. would you be surprised if the patient died in the next year) to confirm anticipated mortality within the next year (14 days to respond)
- must not have a POST form on file
Who cannot take part
- lack of a patient or surrogate decision maker who can participate in POLST facilitation (for non-decisional patients a health care representative (HCR) or designated power of attorney for health care (DPOA-HC) must enroll with them)
- patients who are already enrolled in hospice
- patients or surrogates who cannot pass consent verification
- patients or surrogates who do not speak English
- patients with a POST form on file
- patients who are not community-dwelling
Where in United States
- Eskenazi HealthIndianapolis, United States
- IU Health Methodist HospitalIndianapolis, United States
- IU Health University HospitalIndianapolis, United States
About the trial
What the trial wants to find out
We propose to study the effects of Physician Orders for Scope of Treatment (POST) Facilitation in a randomized controlled trial in a population of community dwelling older adults who qualify for POLST facilitation, including those with normal cognition and those with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders.
The 2 groups in the trial
- Attention Control (Home Safety Evaluation)Other group
A nurse will complete a home visit with the patient and their surrogate decision maker or other family member (if they've designated one), in which he or she will provide suggestions on how to improve the safety of the patient's home.
Treatment: Home Safety Evaluation
- Intervention (POST Facilitation)Treatment being tested
A nurse will complete a home visit with the patient and their surrogate decision maker or other family (if they've designated one), in which he or she will provide education about the POST form. The POST facilitators will be nurses trained using the Respecting Choices Advanced Steps model.
Treatment: POST Facilitation
Data and sources
- Registry record
- Listed on ClinicalTrials.gov.
- Official title
- POST Facilitation for Community Dwelling Older Adults With and Without Dementia
- Publications
- Record updated
- 26 November 2025