Sepsis is an increasingly dangerous and costly problem to hospitals. Affecting more than 1 million Americans per year, sepsis accounts for 40 percent of ICU spend. When combined with pneumonia, it is the third largest consumer of Medicare. Healthcare professionals are familiar with the statistics — what they lack is an effective solution for controlling and reducing the condition.
Now, with the CMS Sepsis Core Measure Bundle in effect, many hospitals are struggling to exceed — let alone meet — these requirements. Clinicians have also raised concerns over the risk of overtreatment and being unable to spend adequate time with other patients.
The increasing prevalence and mortality of sepsis are clear signals that traditional systems of identifying and treating sepsis are not working. Retroactively analyzing data to inform clinical best practices — though an important aspect of refining clinical care models — will not suffice in combatting sepsis. Instead, hospital leaders and physicians can find a more effective solution in applying real-time intelligence technology.
In a Dec. 1 webinar sponsored by VigiLanz, Stacy Pur, vice president of clinical intelligence at VigiLanz, and a panel of clinicians will discuss the latest techniques for automated monitoring and reporting the new bundle measures, as well as how to identify operational efficiency best practices within individual hospitals. The clinicians on the panel include Edward Blews, MD, associate medical director at the Hospital Epidemiology at Loma Linda (Calif.) University Medical Center, Michael Cheatham, MD, chief quality officer at Orlando (Fla.) Regional Medical Center, and Ashley Wheeler, senior quality improvement specialist at SCL Health in Denver.
To register for the webinar, click here.