Each year, more than 19 million individuals develop sepsis, a life-threatening condition that is the result of the body’s extreme response to an infection. The long-term effects of sepsis recovery can result in multiple hospitalizations. About one-third of patients die in the year after sepsis and one in six survivors experience severe persistent weakness or difficulty with memory, concentration or decision making.
Hospitals across Washington state are joining together to change the odds for sepsis survivors. The new Sepsis Treatment and Recovery (STAR) Network is providing hospitals and post-acute care facilities, with access to real-time information on sepsis survivor care events to improve outcomes and long-term recovery for sepsis survivors.
“Sepsis is particularly challenging because it can strike anyone. You don’t have to be chronically ill or elderly for your body to develop this type of reaction,” said Darcy Jaffe, Senior Vice President of Safety and Quality for the Washington State Hospital Association. “Through the STAR Network, we will provide patients who have experienced sepsis with the best chance of making a full and long-term recovery.”
The STAR Network will focus on four strategies to improve care for patients with sepsis and reduce the number who need to return to the hospital after their first visit:
- Rapidly identifying and treating sepsis and septic shock
- Educating patients and families about the special care they will need to fully recover
- Working to ensure providers outside the hospital have the information they need to treat patients after sepsis
- Recognizing and quickly treating physical and cognitive problems that develop after sepsis
“The more we have learned about what happens after sepsis survivors leave the hospital, the more we have realized the importance of keeping track of these patients so we can intervene quickly should they return to the hospital,” Jaffe said. “It is also critical for anyone caring for a person after discharge from the hospital to know that the patient had sepsis so they can watch for the early warning signs of an exacerbation.”
The real-time data access offered in collaboration with PatientPing, the nation’s leading care collaboration platform, will allow STAR Network participants to identify sepsis survivors care events (admissions, discharges or transfers) in real time across Washington. By enabling hospital clinical teams to monitor sepsis survivors as they move from hospitals to other care settings, like nursing homes and rehab centers, they will better understand readmissions trends and can take action to improve health care outcomes.
Sepsis patients in Washington state will begin benefiting from this work in early 2020.
About the Washington State Hospital Association
The Washington State Hospital Association works to improve the health of all Washington state residents by being active on key issues of policy, safety and quality. WSHA represents more than 100 hospitals and health systems in the state, including those that are non-profit, investor-owned, and county, state and military hospitals. The Quadruple Aim guides our members and our work, as we strive to improve the patient experience, the clinician experience, improve the health of populations and reduce the cost of health care. Visit www.wsha.org for more information.
About PatientPing
PatientPing is a collaboration platform that reduces the cost of healthcare and improves patient outcomes by seamlessly connecting providers to coordinate patient care. The platform enables providers to collaborate on shared patients through a comprehensive suite of solutions and allows provider organizations, health plans, governments, individuals and the organizations supporting them to leverage this real-time data to reach their shared goals of improving the efficiency of our healthcare system. To learn more visit www.patientping.com
