The Patient and Family Centered I-PASS LISTEN Study: Language, Inclusion, Safety, and Teamwork for Equity Now

Overview

In 2014, a team of parents, nurses, and physicians created Patient and Family Centered I-PASS (PFC I-PASS), a bundle of communication interventions to improve the quality of information exchange between physicians, nurses, and families, and to better integrate families into all aspects of daily decision making in hospitals. PFC I-PASS changed how doctors and nurses talk to patients and families on rounds when they're admitted to the hospital. (Rounds are when a team of doctors visit patients every morning to do a checkup and make a plan for the day.) Rounds used to happen in a way that left out patients and families. Doctors talked at, not with patients, used big words and medical talk, and left nurses out. PFC I-PASS changed rounds by including families and nurses, using simple non-medical words, and talking in an organized way so nothing is left out. When PFC I-PASS was put in place in 7 hospitals, patients had fewer adverse events and better hospital experience. But it didn't focus on how to talk with patients with language barriers. This project builds upon upon PFC I-PASS to make it better and focus on the special needs of patients who speak languages other than English. This new intervention is known as PFC I-PASS+. PFC I-PASS+ includes all parts of PFC I-PASS plus having interpreters on and after rounds and training doctors about communication and cultural humility. The study team will now conduct a stepped-wedge cluster randomized trial to compare the effectiveness of PFC I-PASS+ and PFC I-PASS to usual care at 8 hospitals.

Detailed description

Hospitalized patients who use languages other than English (LOE, Box 1) for care are at high risk for adverse events (AEs) due to communication failures. These failures include underutilizing safety-promoting strategies, such as certified interpreters, high-reliability structured communication, and family engagement. Patients using LOE also face individual bias from providers (eg, assuming lower intelligence based on accent) and systemic bias from systems not designed to meet their needs (eg, hospitals failing to invest in translation services), which lead to safety risks and poorer health. Patients using LOE also face intersectional bias based on race and ethnicity and other characteristics.

With PCORI's support, the investigators developed a structured communication intervention-Patient and Family Centered I-PASS (PFC I-PASS)-to improve family engagement on rounds that led to a 38% reduction in preventable AEs and improved hospital experience. In the subset of patients/families with language barriers, AEs and hospital experience improved further. However, sites struggled with how to implement PFC I-PASS in patients using LOE for care. Disparities in family engagement in patients using LOE for care persisted and interpreter use varied. The investigators have bolstered PFC I-PASS with evidence-based strategies, including standardized use of certified in-person and video interpreters during and after rounds, cultural humility training, and provider communication skills training (PFC I-PASS+).

The overall goal of this project is to compare the effectiveness of PFC I-PASS+ and PFC I-PASS vs usual care (unstructured communication and unstandardized interpretation at provider discretion) in a population of hospitalized children using LOE (PCORI populations of interest). To pursue this goal, the investigators will conduct a multicenter Hybrid Type I effectiveness trial. The investigators will randomize 4 sites to PFC I-PASS+ and 4 site to PFC I-PASS, using a Stepped Wedge Cluster Randomized Trial (SW-CRT) design to compare the effectiveness of PFC I-PASS and I-PASS+ vs usual care. The investigators will compare safety, experience, discrimination, and communication using gold standard systematic safety surveillance and patient/ family-reported measures. Our primary aim is to test the hypothesis that among patients using LOE for care, both PFC I-PASS+ and PFC I-PASS, vs usual care, will improve: AE rates, patient/family experience of provider communication and experience of discrimination, and communication openness, and frequency of patient-provider communications using interpreters.

Interventions

• Behavioral PFC I-PASS Intervention
  Patient and Family-Centered I-PASS is a bundle of communication interventions to improve the quality of information exchange between physicians, nurses, and families, and to better integrate families into all aspects of daily decision making in hospitals. The intervention included a health literacy-informed, structured communication framework for family-centered rounds; written rounds summaries for families; a training and learning program; and strategies to support teamwork and implementation.
• Behavioral PFC I-PASS+ Intervention
  PFC I-PASS+ builds on PFC I-PASS to make it better and focus on the special needs of patients who speak languages other than English. PFC I-PASS+ includes all parts of PFC I-PASS plus having interpreters during and after rounds, cultural humility training, and provider communication skills training.

Primary outcome measures

• Adverse Event Rates [Time frame: 24 months (including usual care and intervention implementation data collection which will happen sequentially) per site (8 sites total)]

Secondary outcome measures (4)

• Patient/Family Experience with Care Questionnaire [Time frame: 24 months (including usual care and intervention implementation data collection which will happen sequentially) per site (8 sites total)]
• Patient/Family Experience of Discrimination (Discrimination In Medical Settings Scale) [Time frame: 24 months (including usual care and intervention implementation data collection which will happen sequentially) per site (8 sites total)]
• Safety Climate (The Children's Hospital Safety Climate Questionnaire) [Time frame: 24 months (including usual care and intervention implementation data collection which will happen sequentially)per site (8 sites total)]
• Observations of Quality and Frequency of Communications [Time frame: 24 months (including usual care and intervention implementation data collection which will happen sequentially) per site (8 sites total)]

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion criteria

• All patients admitted to the pediatric inpatient study units of participating hospitals
• Patients themselves who are age 13 and up (if they provide assent and their parent or guardian gives permission)\*
• Parents/caregivers of patients of all ages who speak English, Arabic, Armenian, Bengali, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Karen, Korean, Nepali, Quiche, Spanish, Somali, and Vietnamese (and/or other languages if resources allow)
• Nurses working on these units
• Residents working on these units
• Medical and nursing students working on these units
• Hospital leaders working at these hospitals
• \*Note for Consenting: Patients (13-18yo) who are in state custody and assent for themselves to complete surveys but lack legal guardian/caregiver present to offer consent are not being approached to complete surveys. These patients may still be enrolled in the study but not consented to complete patient-facing forms.

Exclusion Criteria: None

Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.

Healthy volunteers: No

Study design

Allocation

Randomized

Model

Sequential

Masking

Single blind

Primary purpose

Health services research

Study locations

United States · 8 centers

• University of Alabama at Birmingham — Birmingham
• Children's Hospital Los Angeles — Los Angeles
• UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital of Oakland — Oakland
• University of Nebraska Medical Center — Omaha
• Children's Hospital at Montefiore — The Bronx
• The Research Institute of Nationwide Children's Hospital — Columbus
• UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh — Pittsburgh
• Northwest Texas Healthcare System — Amarillo

Publications

• Starmer AJ, Spector ND, Srivastava R, West DC, Rosenbluth G, Allen AD, Noble EL, Tse LL, Dalal AK, Keohane CA, Lipsitz SR, Rothschild JM, Wien MF, Yoon CS, Zigmont KR, Wilson KM, O'Toole JK, Solan LG, Aylor M, Bismilla Z, Coffey M, Mahant S, Blankenburg RL, Destino LA, Everhart JL, Patel SJ, Bale JF Jr, Spackman JB, Stevenson AT, Calaman S, Cole FS, Balmer DF, Hepps JH, Lopreiato JO, Yu CE, Sectis PMID 25372088
• Khan A, Coffey M, Litterer KP, Baird JD, Furtak SL, Garcia BM, Ashland MA, Calaman S, Kuzma NC, O'Toole JK, Patel A, Rosenbluth G, Destino LA, Everhart JL, Good BP, Hepps JH, Dalal AK, Lipsitz SR, Yoon CS, Zigmont KR, Srivastava R, Starmer AJ, Sectish TC, Spector ND, West DC, Landrigan CP; the Patient and Family Centered I-PASS Study Group; Allair BK, Alminde C, Alvarado-Little W, Atsatt M, Aylor PMID 28241211
• Khan A, Spector ND, Baird JD, Ashland M, Starmer AJ, Rosenbluth G, Garcia BM, Litterer KP, Rogers JE, Dalal AK, Lipsitz S, Yoon CS, Zigmont KR, Guiot A, O'Toole JK, Patel A, Bismilla Z, Coffey M, Langrish K, Blankenburg RL, Destino LA, Everhart JL, Good BP, Kocolas I, Srivastava R, Calaman S, Cray S, Kuzma N, Lewis K, Thompson ED, Hepps JH, Lopreiato JO, Yu CE, Haskell H, Kruvand E, Micalizzi DA, PMID 30518517
• Khan A, Yin HS, Brach C, Graham DA, Ramotar MW, Williams DN, Spector N, Landrigan CP, Dreyer BP; Patient and Family Centered I-PASS Health Literacy Subcommittee. Association Between Parent Comfort With English and Adverse Events Among Hospitalized Children. JAMA Pediatr. 2020 Dec 1;174(12):e203215. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.3215. Epub 2020 Dec 7. PMID 33074313
• Parente VM, Khan A, Robles JM. Belonging on Rounds: Translating Research Into Inclusive Practices for Families With Limited English Proficiency to Promote Safety, Equity, and Quality. Hosp Pediatr. 2022 May 1;12(5):e171-e173. doi: 10.1542/hpeds.2022-006581. No abstract available. PMID 35411380
• Khan A, Quinones-Perez B, Castellanos A, Garcia S, MacInnes E. Promoting true meaningful access and equity for patients and clinicians through the use of certified interpreters in hospitals. J Hosp Med. 2022 Sep;17(9):772-773. doi: 10.1002/jhm.12943. Epub 2022 Aug 17. No abstract available. PMID 35977037
• Khan A, Parente V, Baird JD, Patel SJ, Cray S, Graham DA, Halley M, Johnson T, Knoebel E, Lewis KD, Liss I, Romano EM, Trivedi S, Spector ND, Landrigan CP; Patient and Family Centered I-PASS SCORE Scientific Oversight Committee; Bass EJ, Calaman S, Fegley AE, Knighton AJ, O'Toole JK, Sectish TC, Srivastava R, Starmer AJ, West DC. Association of Patient and Family Reports of Hospital Safety Climate PMID 35696195
• Glick AF, Kuzma NC, Rosenbluth G, Kats DJ, Yin HS, Zheng AW, Fan AL, D'Anna R, Elborki M, Gray KP, Texler C, Micalizzi D, Kane J, Haskell H, McDonald SC, Abu-Rish Blakeney E, Bismilla Z, Alvarado-Little W, Khan A; I-PASS LISTEN Language and Structured Communication Subcommittees. Development and evaluation of a multilingual caregiver electronic rounds summary. J Hosp Med. 2026 Jun;21(6):620-628. d PMID 41736487

Identifiers

NCT: NCT05591066 · IRB-P00042876

Primary sources (government registries)

• ClinicalTrials.gov (US NIH)

View this study on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗