Sepsis Effort Saving Lives at Franciscan Health Crown Point

Sepsis Effort Saving Lives at Franciscan Health Crown Point

Members of the Franciscan Health Crown Point Emergency Department team recently celebrated the six-month implementation of a Sepsis initiative program that is credited with saving 15 lives so far.

According to Margaret Donnowitz, RN (front row center, clinical quality specialist), in May 2017 a multi-disciplinary team participated in a Rapid Improvement Event with the goal of reducing the amount of time it takes to initiate treatment of patients who present with sepsis in the ED. Within the first six months, the hospital improved how quickly antibiotics are given, the amount of fluid patients receive, and how often lab tests are repeated in alignment with the Surviving Sepsis Campaign. The improvements have resulted in decreased patient mortality, length of stay and time spent in critical care areas. The nurse-driven protocol was developed by a multidisciplinary group of eight people, but the entire staff of the emergency room (nurses, paramedics, techs, health unit coordinators, and physicians) drove the success of the protocol in improving care of sepsis patients.

“Training, conducted by the team, was intensive and included inpatient staff to increase awareness of sepsis and its treatment,” Donnowitz said, adding, “Workflow changes were numerous and included training techs to perform point-of-care testing used to identify septic patients, tools to provide improved patient reports between ED and the inpatient units, and special IV labels to address large amounts of fluids that the septic patient often requires.” Shown (front row, from left) are Mandy Stevens, health unit coordinator; Kathy Crooks, RN; Mindy Webb, RN, patient care coordinator; Donnowitz, Tony Dalie, technician; Jilian Myers, RN; Becky Zilai, RN. In the back row (from left), are Darieta Strazzante, RN; Fred Brazzale, paramedic; Diane Warburton, RN, ED manager; Gabriela Tolimir, pharmacist informaticist; Missy Wilson, RN; Jennifer Daniel, business transformation specialist; and Travis Thatcher-Curtis, RN, director of nursing operations.