How We’re Improving Sepsis Outcomes for Our Patients

As part of Sepsis Awareness Month in September, our teams were busy celebrating excellence in the recognition, treatment and prevention of sepsis—because our commitment to decreasing sepsis mortality and providing better patient outcomes is ongoing. 

Sepsis has long been one of our greatest opponents as it is the number one cause of mortality, readmission and cost in the healthcare setting. Our teams committed to taking a hard look at how we handle this deadly condition, and how to ensure excellence in care and outcomes for our patients. Here’s a glimpse of some of the work we’ve done to help keep our patients safe from sepsis. 

Supporting Our Frontline Teams

In recent years, our sepsis program and interdisciplinary committee have launched projects to create tools and clear treatment guidelines for our frontline teams. Some examples include, developing:

• Predictive models within the electronic medical record to expedite early recognition of sepsis. The sooner symptoms are spotted, the earlier treatment begins and the risk of death decreases.
• Policies and protocols to define both sepsis and its severity
• Algorithms and order sets to guide treatment
• A sepsis alert process within the ED

Reducing Mortality, Saving Lives 

• The interdisciplinary collaboration by all our teams has helped us to decrease system-wide sepsis mortality by 42.3% since calendar year 2022.
• Efforts through our sepsis program have resulted in saving 257 lives from sepsis since 2023.
• These results have skyrocketed our organization’s performance to that of one of the higher performing hospital systems in our nation. In the last year, our health system has saved an average of 11 more lives per month than other academic medical centers.
• The treatment of sepsis is also monitored by CMS Sep-1 compliance. In the last 3 years, our compliance has improved dramatically, meeting the national average. 

“I’m really proud of what our teams have accomplished to lower our sepsis mortality rates,” says Alex Kerr, RN sepsis program manager. “It’s been such great collaboration across many disciplines, and I especially want to thank our Emergency Department staff because 80% of sepsis cases occur in the ED. Our ED physician and nursing commitment to improve has been a driving force behind these results.”

Looking Ahead 

This year our project teams are diligently working to expand sepsis resources in Pediatrics and Obstetrics. The fight is never over; we must always remain vigilant in providing the best care for our patients and communities. Every day, all year let’s honor those who have been affected by Sepsis, and further our commitment to excellence for our future patients.  

To learn more:

• Sepsis Alliance
• CDC.gov/sepsis