Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/952761
30 DATA INFORMATICS AND ANALYTICS This Seattle Hospital Aims to Get Sepsis Patients on Antibiotics Within 3 Hours — Here's How By Mackenzie Bean S eattle-based Harborview Medical Center relies on an automated sepsis-detection system — supported by the cohesive integration of nurses and technology — that seeks to treat potential sepsis patients within three hours of detection, reported NPR. Here are six things to know. 1. David Carlbom, MD, a critical care pulmonologist, and medical di- rector of Harborview's sepsis program, helped introduce the warning system in 2011 to improve sepsis detection and treatment. "Sepsis is a really frustrating disease," Dr. Carlbom told NPR. "ere's no blood test for sepsis. … ere's nothing you can look at under the microscope and say, 'is is sepsis.'" 2. e automated system analyzes EHR data to pinpoint patterns of symptoms like high temperature or low blood pressure that may in- dicate an emerging sepsis infection. When the system detects a poten- tial sepsis infection, a red box appears next to a patient's name on the computer. is alert prompts a nurse to assess whether the patient's symptoms are an early sign of sepsis. "If the nurse says yes, then the provider is automatically paged, out of the computer system," said Rosemary Grant, RN, a registered nurse who coordinates sepsis care at Harborview. 3. Once paged, physicians must respond within half an hour, with the goal of getting a patient who may be developing sepsis on antibiotics within three hours. 4. If the nurse believes the symptoms do not point to sepsis, the computer system will ask why the patient has abnormal vital signs, according to Ms. Grant. In these instances, the nurses may type that the patient's heart rate was elevated due to exercise or other explain- able reasons. 5. Since clinicians must manually enter EHR data into the alert system — a shortcoming consistent with many automated sepsis-de- tection systems — clinicians sometimes identify and treat signs of an infection before the computer system can catch up. 6. Yet overall, the system has proven effective and Harborview has seen hospital mortality rates drop since the system's implementation, according to Ms. Grant. n 3,100+ ATTENDEES FROM HOSPITALS AND HEALTH SYSTEMS ACROSS THE NATION REGISTER BY AUGUST 1, 2018 AND SAVE! Peyton Manning NFL Legend Rudy Giuliani 107th Mayor of New York City, Partner, Giuliani Partners Venus Williams Tennis Champion Howard Dean, MD Former Chairman, Democratic National Committee and Governor of Vermont CELEBRITY KEYNOTES KEYNOTE DEBATE VS HEALTH IT + REVENUE CYCLE 2018 SEPTEMBER 19-22, 2018 HYATT REGENCY | CHICAGO, ILLINOIS REGISTER HERE www.beckershospitalreview.com/health-it-revenue-cycle-conference registration@beckershealthcare.com, jcole@beckershealthcare.com, sbecker@beckershealthcare.com | or 800.417.2035 Great sessions on Cyber Security, Telehealth, Mobile Health, Revenue Cycle Optimization, Predictive Analytics, EMR Issues, Denials, Patient Clearance, Population Health and more 200+ HOSPITAL AND HEALTH SYSTEM EXECUTIVES SPEAKING OVER 255 SPEAKERS TOTAL