Page 22 - 2016 Nursing Annual Report | Summa Health
P. 22
New Knowledge, Innovations
and Improvements
Education helps reduce
sepsis
Introduction
Sepsis is a topic that doesn’t get a lot of attention, but Summa Health
is working to educate its staff and the community. Sepsis is a profound
inflammatory response to an underlying infection that if not treated can
lead to death.
Background Initiative
A closer look at Summa Health’s readmission rates and a Mesaros and Johnson with the support of Lorie Rhine,
new national focus on sepsis readmission and treatment MSN, RN, NE-BC, Vice President, Inpatient Nursing
compliance led to the development of an education Services, developed HealthStream courses for all staff, did
initiative to help combat the problem. rounding education and developed a poster that details
the stages of sepsis and the various signs and symptoms
In September of 2015, to coincide with Sepsis Awareness associated with each. There was also physician-to-
Month, Kylene Mesaros, MSN, RN, ACCNS-AG, CCRN, physician education led by Bradley Martin, M.D., Critical
Critical Care CNS, and Amy Johnson, MSN, RN, ACCNS- Care.
AG, CCRN, Medical/Surgical and Telemetry CNS,
developed a Sepsis Fair for employees and the public. “Our staff really just had to learn what sepsis was and
They also launched an education campaign for physicians, understand its severity and that it needs to be treated
nurses and residents in all the units at Summa Health quickly,” explained Mesaros. “It’s important that we find
System – Akron, Barberton and St. Thomas Campuses. out what the infection is and then treat it immediately.
Sepsis itself is not necessarily life-threatening, it could be
Goal Statement as simple as a urinary tract infection, but if you let it go
without treatment, your body organs start shutting down
The goal of the sepsis education initiative was to help and your body gets overwhelmed.”
staff recognize the signs of sepsis quicker so appropriate
treatment could be started sooner. Every one-hour Rhine said the patients who go into septic shock often
delay in antibiotics decreases the chance of survival by 8 don’t survive and a patient can progress to septic shock in
percent. as little as 8-12 hours.
“The literature is clear. If you follow the evidence-based According to Johnson, one of the concerns was a lack of
care bundle and the guidelines, the patient’s outcome is sepsis identification awareness in her areas of medical/
much better,” said Mesaros. “Early recognition, antibiotics surgical and telemetry.
and fluids are really the three mainstays of sepsis
treatment.” “We saw that you could clearly see the moment when
a patient started declining, so we talked a lot about
the importance of assessing vital signs correctly and
activating the Rapid Response Team as soon as you start
seeing some slight shifts. More recently, we’ve done some
education with our nursing assistants and nursing student
techs since they obtain a lot of vital signs. There’s been a
real improvement,” she said.
22 Summa Health
