Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Success Preventing Sepsis

Each year more than one million patients in the United States are diagnosed with sepsis, a condition that has a 28% to 50% mortality rate and is quite costly to treat. Kennedy Health, an integrated health delivery system in New Jersey, has developed a systemwide approach to improve sepsis care and patient outcomes. In 2012, a multidisciplinary sepsis committee introduced sepsis bundles in the health system’s EDs and ICUs. To achieve 100% bundle compliance, the committee reviewed sepsis cases and tested changes along the way. In July 2014, the health system created a “Sepsis on the Floors” task force to decrease mortality rates among medical/surgical patients; improve recognition of sepsis; promote a nurse-driven lactic acid policy, as well as a nurse-initiated blood culture policy; and foster collaboration among the entire care team. The task force uses the PDSA cycle to examine cases not compliant with the bundle process and lead continuous process improvement. As a result, Kennedy Health has reduced its sepsis mortality rate to 11.8%, and nearly 94% of cases meet compliance with the three-hour sepsis bundle. Kennedy Health is now working with the New Jersey Hospital Association’s sepsis learning-action collaborative.

For more information, contact Nicole Pensiero, corporate director of communications, at n.pensiero@kennedyhealth.org. A detailed case study about Kennedy Health’s sepsis initiative is available on HPOE.org.