Trial of Mount Sinai Palliative Care at Home

The proposed project is a randomized controlled trial of a new home-based palliative care program for adults with serious illness and their caregivers within the Mount Sinai Health System. Potential subjects will be identified from Mount Sinai records or referred by a Mount Sinai healthcare provider. Patients will only be approached after authorization by their Mount Sinai physician. Participants who consent to enrollment will be randomized to receive the intervention (home-based palliative care program) or usual care (with their nominated Mount Sinai physician). Patients will be enrolled in the study for a minimum of 6 months. After 6 months, patients can remain in the program if there is ongoing clinical need; data collection beyond 6 months will be done on all patients through chart abstraction/ administrative claims only. Effectiveness of the intervention will be determined through assessment of patient and caregiver reported outcomes and abstraction of data from medical records and administrative claims. Impact on the following parameters will be measured: (i) Patient symptoms, quality of life, satisfaction with care, documentation of advanced directives, receipt of care consistent with preferences (ii) Caregiver burden, satisfaction with care, and depression (iii) Healthcare utilization and costs of care.