09 Jul 2021
0

MVC Sepsis Workgroup Review

July 9, 2021 | 0 Comments

The Michigan Value Collaborative (MVC) holds bi-monthly virtual workgroups on six different clinical areas of focus. The goals of these workgroups are to help bring collaborative members together to discuss current quality improvement initiatives and/or challenging areas of practice. These six different clinical areas include chronic disease management (CDM), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), congestive heart failure (CHF), diabetes, joint, and sepsis. At the most recent MVC sepsis workgroup, the discussion centered around post-sepsis syndrome and how organizations are identifying and caring for patients that are diagnosed with this condition.

The group learnt that for several organizations, post-sepsis syndrome is not well understood, identified, or diagnosed which prompted some interesting discussion around this topic and the topic of sepsis itself. A number of studies have suggested that due to an aging population with an increased number of comorbidities, frequent use of immunosuppression therapy, expanded use of invasive procedures and medical devices, and multi-drug resistance, the incidence of sepsis has increased. However, the same studies share that in-hospital mortality has decreased. Credit for this decrease in mortality is associated with improved detection, establishing treatment earlier, improvements in critical care, and the implementation of evidence-based guidelines established by the Surviving Sepsis Campaign.

While survivors of sepsis have increased, identification of post-sepsis syndrome is garnering attention as many patients can suffer from a number of serious and long-lasting complications including delusions, debilitating muscle and joint pains, extreme exhaustion, poor concentration, reduced cognitive functioning, as well as mental health issues and concerns. Certain patients, such as the elderly, those with a preexisting condition, or those diagnosed with severe sepsis are more likely to develop post-sepsis syndrome.

Currently, the most effective method of treatment for post sepsis syndrome is to prevent an initial incidence of sepsis. Primary prevention includes hand washing, vaccination uptake, and managing any chronic conditions. Pharmacological strategies for the treatment of sepsis and the prevention of post-sepsis syndrome include:

• Antibiotic stewardship, to improve the use of antibiotics and using prolactin levels to decide when to stop antibiotic use.
• The use of H2-receptor agonists over proton pump inhibitors to prevent stress ulcers.
• Low dosage and short-term use of medications.
• Early mobility to prevent functional decline.

Non-pharmacological strategies for the prevention and treatment of sepsis to avert post-sepsis syndrome include:
• Sepsis treatment and the identification of post-sepsis syndrome education for frontline workers.
• Post-sepsis education for family and caregivers of sepsis survivors along with available resources.
• Vision/Hearing Aids to reduce the risk of delirium, as well as adaptive equipment.
• Referral for rehabilitation post sepsis survival.

MVC collaborative members from multiple facilities including Michigan Medicine, Henry Ford Wyandotte, Sparrow, and Spectrum Health discussed different ways in which they are working to identify sepsis as early as possible within their facilities. Many organizations have instituted a sepsis program, and some are looking to onboard a sepsis navigator. Dr. Jessie King, Program Director, shared information about the Post-Intensive Care Unit (ICU) research and treatment clinic (PULSE) now screening discharged ICU patients for post-sepsis syndrome, and the Michigan Medicine return on investment analysis which helped initiate a sepsis program. You can find the recording of the workgroup here.

The MVC Coordinating Center is interested in hearing how you are treating sepsis and the prevention and treatment of post-sepsis syndrome. We would like more hospitals to share the work they are doing around these important topics so if you would like to present at or attend an upcoming MVC workgroup, please email MVC at the michiganvaluecollaborative@gmail.com

18 Feb 2021
0

Michigan Value Collaborative: Sepsis Reports

February 18, 2021 | 0 Comments

In early 2020, the Michigan Value Collaborative (MVC) Coordinating Center created a new sepsis service line with the help of the Michigan Michigan Hospital Medicine Safety Consortium (HMS). Initially the service line began with 215,447 episodes and has since grown to 229,673 episodes. In conjunction with the creation of the sepsis service line, reports customized to each collaborative member hospital were developed. The most recent iteration of these, shared in two volumes, were disseminated to members in February 2021.

Each volume of the sepsis reports serves their own unique purpose. The first volume provides a detailed review into specific components of a sepsis episode with the ability for each member to compare individualized information to regional and statewide averages. These metrics help members garner a better understanding of the sepsis patient population from admission to 90-days post discharge with data on length of stay, causes for readmission, and post-acute care utilization. Figure 1 shares information on length of stay, and this example shows Hospital A’s (a fictional institution) average length of stay to be higher than both the regional and collaborative-wide average. Additionally, metrics such as total episode payment and readmission rates are displayed as trends over time as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3.

Figure One.

Figure Two.

Figure 3 shows that the individual hospital trend for the 90-day readmission rate is higher than both the regional and MVC averages which mirror each other closely. Initially, the overall hospital trend decreases towards the regional average, but climbs again in 2019. MVC members may wish to use this information to investigate the root causes leading to increased readmissions.

Figure Three.

The second volume of MVC’s sepsis reports provides benchmarking for members to identify how they compare to all other MVC hospitals. Figure 4 shows information on a hospital’s total episode payment compared to the regional and MVC averages. In addition, it shows the range of the average total episode payments across the collaborative. By using previously sent reports, hospitals can compare how the metrics have changed - such as an increase or decrease in collaborative-wide or individualized total episode payments. As these reports are disseminated every six months, when comparing, it is important to take notice of the reporting period covered in each report which can be located in the associated cover letter and footnotes. Members can also access their own sepsis related data on the MVC registry.

Figure Four.

If you have any suggestions on how these reports can be improved or the data made more actionable, we would love to hear from you. We are also seeking feedback on how collaborative members are using this information in their quality improvement projects. Please reach out to the Coordinating Center at michiganvaluecollaborative@gmail.com to share your story. If you have any questions or are interested in custom data for your facility, contact us at the aforementioned email address.