Lannon de Best, Janice Rotinksy, Monique McLaughlin, Dr. David Sweet
September 13 is World Sepsis Day: a great opportunity to increase awareness of this serious condition and refocus our efforts on improving the care we provide.
Sepsis is a life-threatening condition resulting from the body’s response to severe infection. Did you know?*:
- More than 30,000 patients are hospitalized in Canada each year because of sepsis
- Every year, sepsis affects nearly twice as many people as strokes or myocardial infarction
- 38 % of patients who develop severe sepsis in Canada will die
Your colleagues across VCH-PHC are working to change those statistics by focusing on three tasks:
- Early identification.
- Early antibiotics.
- Early IV fluids.
To save lives, VCH-PHC sepsis champions invite you to help them mark World Sepsis Day:
At VGH’s ED this week: Janice Rotinksy, Lannon de Best and Dr. Lyne Filiatrault are organizing huddles, sending daily educational emails about sepsis, and giving nurses quizzes (there’s a prize!). On September 19, the ED is doing sepsis rounds with emergency residents, physicians and nurses, reviewing sepsis protocols, pre printed orders and BC Sepsis Guidelines. If time permits, staff can play Septris (an online learning game based on Tetris).
Richmond Hospital: ED staff have set up an education board dedicated to sepsis – it includes quick facts, some journal articles and posters. There also will be 1:1 teaching throughout the department with giveaways like pens and hand sanitizers!
From left: Alfred Cheng RN; Dr Adam Davidson (LGH ED sepsis lead), Janice Carpenter RN; Dr David Williscroft in front of the Quality Board on Sepsis located at Lions Gate Hospital.
Lions Gate Hospital: In the ED, LGH Sepsis leads Dr Adam Davidson and Sherry Stackhouse have posted fact sheets, are encouraging downloads of a free sepsis app, and have set up a quality board focused on sepsis. Nurses and doctors can do a survey monkey quiz on sepsis (winner gets a Starbucks card!).
St Paul’s Hospital: Veronica Patricelli (CNL), Christina Graham and Amanda Hickey are focusing on increasing nurses’ awareness by attaching laminated versions of the sepsis pathway to each computer at every nursing station. Look for the sepsis banner and sepsis awareness posters and articles going up in the main ED, as well as an upcoming education day on sepsis.
On September 13, VCH’s Dr David Sweet will lead the Canadian contingent of an international sepsis twitter chat (hashtag #WSD12). Starting in Australia, moving through the UK and ending in Canada, facilitators will lead hourly discussions on topics dedicated to sepsis improvement.
Congratulations to all of VCH’s sepsis champions. They work tirelessly so that every day is Sepsis Awareness Day. In fact, sepsis is one of the priority issues that VCH is working on through the Clinical Guidelines Initiative, which in turn supports BC’s Clinical Care Management system.
Together, we can save lives. Want to help? Join the BC Sepsis Network (led by VCH’s Dr. David Sweet), use BC’s Sepsis Clinical Guidelines and commit to improving sepsis care every day.
*Information comes from the BC Patient Safety & Quality Council
Denise Clarke-Ames
I understand there is a fairly new product on the market, being distributed out of Ireland for one, that can test whole blood for sepsis in < 15 minutes, a great time saving over the previous method of having to separate the platelets from the serum then testing it. Does VCH have these testing devices in our ER's?