Prioritizing Primary Care Patients for a Communication Intervention Using the “Surprise Question”: a Prospective Cohort Study

Abstract

Background: Communication about priorities and goals improves the value of care for patients with serious illnesses. Resource constraints necessitate targeting interventions to patients who need them most. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a clinician screening tool to identify patients for a communication intervention. Design: Prospective cohort study. Setting: Primary care clinics in Boston, MA. Participants: Primary care physicians (PCPs) and nurse care coordinators (RNCCs) identified patients at high risk of dying by answering the Surprise Question (SQ): “Would you be surprised if this patient died in the next 2 years?” Measurements: Performance of the SQ for predicting mortality, measured by the area under receiver operating curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity, and likelihood ratios. Results: Sensitivity of PCP response to the SQ at 2 years was 79.4% and specificity 68.6%; for RNCCs, sensitivity was 52.6% and specificity 80.6%. In univariate regression, the odds of 2-year mortality for patients identified as high risk by PCPs were 8.4 times higher than those predicted to be at low risk (95% CI 5.7–12.4, AUC 0.74) and 4.6 for RNCCs (3.4–6.2, AUC 0.67). In multivariate analysis, both PCP and RNCC prediction of high risk of death remained associated with the odds of 2-year mortality. Limitations: This study was conducted in the context of a high-risk care management program, including an initial screening process and training, both of which affect the generalizability of the results. Conclusion: When used in combination with a high-risk algorithm, the 2-year version of the SQ captured the majority of patients who died, demonstrating better than expected performance as a screening tool for a serious illness communication intervention in a heterogeneous primary care population.