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Hospital surveillance program reduces adverse sepsis outcomes
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Recent data suggested a hospital surveillance program reduced the risk for adverse sepsis outcomes by electronically alerting nurses when a patient showed symptoms of sepsis.
“This multidisciplinary hospitalwide sepsis program led to a significant improvement in patient outcomes,” Robert C. Amland, PhD, of Cerner Corp. in Kansas City, Missouri, and colleagues wrote. “Despite substantial variation in outcomes during the initial 6 months after launch of the sepsis program, gains materialized, and were sustained during the second half of the year.”
Amland and colleagues evaluated 1,541 non ICU, hospitalized adults who activated the two-stage clinical decision support (CDS) alert system. Integrated into the hospital’s electronic health record, the binary, cloud-based alarm system notified nurses when patients displayed signs of developing sepsis. The two-stage alert was indicative of systematic inflammatory response and sepsis in patients.
The researchers said the CDS system decreased the risk for adverse outcomes for sepsis, including death, by 30%. In addition, abnormal heart and respiratory rates triggered the system’s earliest alerts, and nurses attended to 97% of patients after an alert.
“Early recognition of sepsis reduces risk of adverse outcomes,” Amland and colleagues wrote. “Achieving substantive outcomes requires patience for program effects to materialize and stabilize, with implications for translational research and quality improvement initiatives.” – by Will Offit
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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