VA Office of Research and Development
Many Veterans living with heart failure or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) experience significant symptoms - such as breathlessness, fatigue, depression, and anxiety -that reduce their quality of life. Despite how common these symptoms are, they are often not adequately addressed in routine care. This study tests whether a virtual team of a nurse and social worker can improve quality of life, depression, anxiety, and other patient-reported outcomes for Veterans with heart failure or COPD who are at high risk of hospitalization or death. The nurse helps Veterans manage their most bothersome symptoms using a structured approach, and the social worker provides brief counseling to address emotional and psychological concerns. Both work closely with the Veteran's primary care provider and palliative care clinician to coordinate additional care as needed. The study also examines whether enhanced implementation support helps VA sites adopt the program more successfully compared to standard implementation support.
Heart failure (HF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) together affect nearly 1 in 4 Veterans and are among the leading causes of hospitalization, mortality, and poor quality of life in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Veterans with these conditions frequently experience depression (50-60%), anxiety (30-40%), breathlessness (44-85%), and fatigue (66-85%). Despite this burden, palliative symptom management and psychosocial support are not routinely delivered in primary care settings. This study implements a virtual nurse and social worker palliative care team that provide…
Inclusion Criteria: * At least one primary care encounter in the past year, identified by primary care stop codes (301, 322, 323, 342, 348, 350, 704) * Diagnosed with heart failure, COPD, or interstitial lung disease, defined as 2 or more outpatient or community care provider visit encounters with a qualifying ICD code at least 30 days apart, or 1 inpatient hospitalization with a qualifying ICD code as the primary discharge diagnosis, within the past year * Care Assessment Need (CAN) 3.0 score ≥ 90 at some point in the prior 6 months * Poor self-reported quality of life, defined as a FACT-G s…
A virtual nurse and social worker team provides direct care to eligible Veterans with heart failure or COPD by phone or VA Video Connect. The nurse conducts structured symptom assessments and uses motivational interviewing to address the Veteran's most bothersome symptom (breathlessness, fatigue, depression, anxiety, or sleep disturbance).The social worker delivers brief structured counseling based on behavioral activation and interpersonal psychotherapy, including modules on activity goals, pacing, role change, and relaxation. The team engages in weekly collaborative case review with a representative primary care provider and palliative care physician and places orders for the treating PCP to consider. Nurses and social workers receive 8 hours of training in primary palliative care competencies.
Enhanced implementation support includes all standard support components plus: during pre-implementation, creation of baseline process maps and a structured brainwriting premortem exercise to identify implementation barriers; during implementation, structured audit and feedback, iteratively updated process maps, and facilitation check-in meetings; during sustainability, ongoing check-in meetings and emails. Delivered to across all phases (pre-implementation, implementation, and sustainability).
Standard implementation support includes clinician engagement, clinician education and suggested implementation plans, fidelity monitoring, clinical office hours, adaptations tracking, sustainability planning, and dissemination of data and best practices. Delivered to across all phases (pre-implementation, implementation, and sustainability).