Raise Awareness about Sepsis in Your Facility this Month!

Each week, Telligen will provide interventions, tips and resources to protect your residents.

Monitoring and Data Collection

To achieve meaningful outcomes in sepsis management, it is most effective to have consistent tracking of sepsis events paired with timely interventions. Using a systematic and organized approach can help your nursing home become more efficient in identifying trends, streamlining communication, making data driven decisions and standardizing evidence-based protocols.

As part of your ongoing QAA/QAPI efforts, you may already be monitoring healthcare-associated infections and rehospitalizations through your antibiotic stewardship program. To enhance its effectiveness, consider incorporating sepsis data into the program. Additionally, visualizing this data with trend charts and graphs can improve understanding and decision-making.

Consider other sepsis-related metrics and use Telligen’s Audit Tracking Tool to customize your tracking measures:

Given that data shows a higher incidence of sepsis in non-white males under 75 years of age in nursing homes, you can refine your tracking further by incorporating social determinants of health to assess if your facility aligns with national data trends. See state specific data below:

• Colorado
• Illinois
• Iowa
• Oklahoma

CALL TO ACTION

1. To better manage sepsis in your facility, identify one sepsis metric to track for 1-2 months (reference above list).

2. Consider completing a chart audit on your last five infection related hospital admissions looking for gaps, you can use the Pathway INTERACT® – Training, Tools, Licensing and Resources (pathway-interact.com) > Login for free > Tools & Resources > 4.5 Tools for Skilled Nursing > Quality Improvement Tool for Review of Acute Care Transfers

3. Share your sepsis data with your team during stand-up meetings and QAA/QAPI meetings.

4. Participate in our storyboard poster challenge to showcase awareness activities based on each weekly topic including best practices to reduce sepsis. This week includes data collection and trends on your storyboard.

a. We challenge you to submit a photo of your poster* before Wednesday, September 25. All storyboard posters will be displayed on the Telligen website and winners will be recognized on our website and in Telligen QI Connect™ emails.

*For more information on creating a storyboard poster, click HERE.

RESOURCES

• Core Elements of Antibiotic Stewardship | CDC
• Health Equity | Telligen QI Connect
• Sepsis Data Sharing Checklist | Telligen QI Connect

Next week’s focus is Family and Staff Education. Contact us with questions!

This material was prepared by Telligen, the Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization, under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Views expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect the official views or policy of CMS or HHS, and any reference to a specific product or entity herein does not constitute endorsement of that product or entity by CMS or HHS. This material is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice; it is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. 12SOW-QIN-09/13/24-5456