A large portion of the sepsis quality measures focuses on rapid diagnosis and treatment: Lab work, antibiotics, fluids, vasopressors, and other treatments must be administered in rapid succession.
Data analysis can help refine processes to make quick diagnosis and treatment lifesaving realities.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, each year at least 1.7 million adults in the United States develop sepsis, and nearly 270,000 of them die. A third of the patients who die in a hospital have sepsis; it’s one of the leading causes of hospital deaths in the U.S. A 2018 d2i benchmarking study revealed that 25% of ED leadership recognizes that managing sepsis is a high priority.
The Surviving Sepsis Campaign, an international consortium of physician experts, has led the way in developing standardized treatment bundles in an effort to lower mortality rates. These bundles have been adopted by CMS and become the standard of care. The quality performance measure for sepsis, used for value-based payment since 2015, is complex and includes 69 data points. Failure at any point in the treatment bundle equals failure of the measure — it’s an all-or-nothing scoring system.
Quality teams know there’s no magic wand that improves sepsis treatment. Improving many small tasks adds up to improvement of the whole, which is why access to accurate data is important.
A Time-Sensitive Condition
Sepsis has taken its place among other time-sensitive conditions, like heart attack and stroke. In all of them, extra minutes waiting can mean loss of function or life. Research shows that the sooner patients can get antibiotics after sepsis onset, the lower the risk of mortality.
A large portion of the sepsis quality measure focuses on rapid diagnosis and treatment: Lab work, antibiotics, fluids, vasopressors, and other treatments must be administered in rapid succession.
Hospitals know delays in sepsis treatment not only cost lives, but also are responsible for lost revenue from quality payment programs. How can data from sepsis cases be used to improve treatment times in emergency departments and inpatient units?
Early Recognition
Early recognition of sepsis is the first hurdle to cross when improving sepsis care. But early presentation is tricky, and patients can rapidly deteriorate into septic shock.
d2i uses data tools to monitor and analyze each step along the sepsis treatment pathway, from admission to discharge, allowing providers to fine-tune their screening protocols to help make early diagnosis a reality.
Lab work is a time-sensitive step that guides sepsis treatment and indicates severity of illness. d2i can analyze lab turnaround times and identify possible barriers, saving precious minutes.
Data-Driven Treatment Interventions
The complex bundles of sepsis treatment interventions must be carefully orchestrated, and involve multiple departments including pharmacy, lab, radiology, and nursing. Our Emergency Medicine Performance Analytics can drill down and segment data to find hidden issues that could be causing bundle noncompliance.
For example, antibiotics can be administered late for a variety of reasons: delayed order entry, delayed pharmacy verification, availability of the medication, proximity of the medication, availability of nursing to administer it, ability to quickly document the administration — the list goes on.
Learn how d2i’s tools analyze every behind-the-scenes process to reveal surprising new intelligence that can help with the creation of solid action plans. Isolating specific improvement actions gets measurable results.
Contact one of our domain experts or request a 30-minute demo to learn more about how our software solutions can help you improve your sepsis treatment protocols.