Experts working for Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., are taking their new sepsis care bundle and education efforts on the road to educate other clinicians on treating the condition, according to a report from fosters.com.
Andreas H. Taenzer, MD, associate professor of anesthesia and pediatrics and program director for the sepsis improvement program at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, explained to the local news source why treating sepsis early is so important to improving patient outcomes.
"If the onset of treatment for sepsis is delayed, by even one hour, the mortality rate increases by 8 percent," said Dr. Taenzer.
To improve sepsis care, Dartmouth-Hitchcock developed a three-hour bundling procedure that includes drawing a blood culture, drawing a lactate analysis and starting the patient on IV fluids and a broad spectrum antibiotic immediately. The bundle helped the medical center improve sepsis case outcomes by 50 percent, according to the report.
Experts from Dartmouth-Hitchcock are meeting with officials from other area hospitals to share their bundle, as well as some other educational tools.
"We have developed a video and quiz that we distribute," Dr. Taenzer told fosters.com. "We will go and do presentations. We did one at the New Hampshire Hospital Association. We are reaching to EMTs, so they can recognize this and inform hospitals before the patient gets there. That will be very helpful."
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Mercy Medical Center earns Pinnacle Award for Severe Sepsis Improvement
Actress Patty Duke dies; family cites sepsis as cause