Patient Surveillance System Helps Reduce Sepsis-Related Mortality By 53%

Sepsis is the deadliest and most expensive condition treated in hospital critical care units, with septic shock carrying a 34% mortality rate. Early sepsis detection is critical to saving lives and decreasing the cost of care.

THE PROBLEM

In absolute terms, hospital admissions for sepsis outnumber admissions for stroke, acute myocardial infarction and trauma combined, so creating more integrated sepsis and infection-prevention programs is an ever-present challenge.

As with many hospitals, for Tift Regional Medical Center in Tifton, Georgia, the incidence of sepsis is much higher in the intensive care unit and the emergency department than in other parts of the hospital. The hospital needed to find a way to re-energize its attack on sepsis in these areas in order to improve its nurse protocols and overall bundle compliance, and reduce the human and financial costs.