A key tenet of the health care reform bill relies on our health system's ability to improve quality care while reducing costs. We have been ardent advocates for health reform for many years, and now that the reform bill is law, we're putting all our effort into making its goals a reality.
Which is why we're pleased to announce the results of a three year program aimed at reducing mortality for patients with severe sepsis. Sepsis is the body’s overwhelming response to a serious bacterial infection. It can start in a single area in the body or can be widespread in the bloodstream. If not diagnosed early and treated quickly, sepsis can rapidly lead to organ failure and death. There are more than 750,000 cases of severe sepsis annually in North America with 210,000 fatalities, making it the number one cause of inpatient death.
Our program saved 991 lives and reduced costs by $36.5 million!
How did we do it?
Using the Surviving Sepsis Campaign recommendations, as well as the Institute for Health Care Improvement’s collaborative improvement methods, CHW caregivers and staff focused on early recognition of severe sepsis patients, increasing the use of aggressive and appropriate treatment protocols, educating healthcare professionals, monitoring compliance to treatment guidelines, and facilitating data collection for the purposes of improvement and feedback.Each CHW hospital has a multi-disciplinary team comprising physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, and other clinicians that implement an early resuscitation ‘bundle’ – a series of evidence-based measurable treatments that have proven effective when implemented together – during the first six hours a patient is diagnosed with sepsis. The bundle consists of measuring the patient’s blood lactate levels and blood cultures, administering appropriate antibiotics within the first hour of a patient presenting to the emergency department and administering appropriate treatments for low blood pressure.
Because sepsis is such a widespread and serious problem in the inpatient setting, studies have shown that treating it more effectively will result in lower health care costs. In three years, CHW estimates its severe sepsis prevention resulted in a savings of more than $36 million in direct variable costs.
In its nine Sacramento and San Francisco Bay Area hospitals, CHW has received a two-year grant totaling $1.8 million from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to support the expansion of sepsis prevention nursing education. Utilizing the grant and a portion of matching funds, CHW has hired an analyst, paid for innovative sepsis education services and has developed a comprehensive sepsis education program.
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