Improved Sepsis Detection & Compliance: 6 Areas Your Next Solution Should Address
Sepsis accounts for over 20% of deaths worldwide (WHO) and 85% of cases occur in low-resource settings.
But this isn’t a problem mostly owned by third-world countries with inadequate equipment and detection technology. In the U.S., less than 50% of patients are correctly treated for sepsis, mostly due to clinicians missing the timeline for treatment. The problem is so widespread that the acceptable standard for this poor performance is shockingly low. A sepsis bundle compliance of 50-60% is considered a “passable grade” in U.S. hospitals, but many fall below even that, down to the 9-25% range, making sepsis the leading cause of both readmissions and in-hospital deaths. As patients become savvier about healthcare choices, competition grows, and government regulation takes a closer look at the costs of healthcare, settling for even that 50% mark isn’t likely to keep your organization profitable or favored by patients and practitioners.
Any hospital stay is costly to patients, but the extended stays or readmissions for acute sepsis are particularly brutal and contribute to patient dissatisfaction, crushing financial burdens, fear of hospitals, and disproportionate care for minorities. The human and financial costs are deeply connected for all parties when errors that lead to prolonged sepsis occur, both in hospitals and beyond. Small hospitals lose approx. $10M annually in net margins. For large hospitals, that number increases to $34M. These frustrating statistics can be improved and all healthcare practitioners should strive for better compliance. Sepsis is the most preventable cause of death in hospitals; bundle compliance is proven to save lives and reduce length of stay.
You can’t fix sepsis with your EHR or a simple patient tracker board. You need a proven, validated solution built for sepsis detection. Here are six things your platform should address:
1. END-TO-END SOLUTION It’s not just about the algorithm. It’s about an accretive solution that detects, tracks, and ensures complete delivery of the bundle elements.
2. EARLY DETECTION Configurable algorithms are a must so that the detection approach matches local needs and supports deploying different algorithms in different units.
3. EARLY INTERVENTION Directly firing a sepsis alert for a patient requires a provider to step in, review the case, & declare that the patient does indeed have sepsis.
4. TIMELY DELIVERY OF CARE ELEMENTS When the complete care bundle is delivered within defined time windows, remarkable improvements in the survivability of sepsis and in reductions of total care and length of stay are achieved.
5. AUTOMATED COMMUNICATION A solution’s functionality must provide automatic sepsis alerts & at-a-glance awareness of patient status, integrated into your EHR, enabling bedside & remote monitoring of large numbers of patients simultaneously.
6. CERTIFICATIONS You wouldn’t use non-FDA-approved bedside devices or implants, so why would you use uncleared digital health solutions? Certifications such as FDA, CE Marking, & ISO demonstrate a vendor has met a rigorous standard of excellence which is extremely important to your executive team & enhances your competitive advantage.
The Ambient Clinical Analytics AWARE Platform including DART (Detection And Response Tool) uses Mayo Clinic co-developed & licensed technologies including over 1,330 rules and algorithms to give providers real-time point-of-care visualization of patients’ holistic condition by organ system.
AWARE detects and treats conditions like sepsis, reducing hospital stays and saving lives.
The DART platform drives timely intervention and completion of appropriate clinical processes for conditions such as Sepsis, ALI, VILI, AKI, MI, CHF, SSI, CLABSI, CAUTI, etc.
Following the CMS Sep-1 bundle compliance of sepsis treatment... • Reduces mortality by 7.5-10.5% • Produces an ROI of ~$1M for small to medium-sized hospitals and much more for larger hospitals & health systems - Roughly $4K per sepsis case
DART... • Increases sepsis compliance by 20% in under 30 days in high-performing organziations and even more in low-performing ones • Provides analytics and tools to automate the processes needed to treat sepsis on time • Delivers at-a-glance situational awareness • Allows for a tele-sepsis model and outsourcing • Is the ONLY FDA Class II cleared sepsis solution on the market
KEVIN KRONMILLER OVERCOMES 30% CHANCE OF SURVIVAL
THE PROBLEM: When Kevin Kronmiller was 22, he found out he had 5 years to live if he didn’t receive a liver transplant. Beating the odds, Kevin made it to 50 before having one. After his surgery, Kevin went into Septic Shock. He found out later from his physicians that he had a 30% chance of survival and even if he did survive, doctors were very concerned about long-term complications.
THE OUTCOME: Kevin’s physicians relied on Ambient Clinical Analytics’ AWARE Sepsis DART™ solution to notify them he was potentially septic. Using DART, physicians and nurses were guided through the care process, making sure Kevin received all the required Sepsis Bundle Elements. Because of this, Kevin not only survived sepsis but was able to return to living a normal life with no long-term sepsis complications. Watch the Kevin Kronmiller’s Story Here.
HOW SEPSIS IMPACTS PATIENTS & HOSPITALS
Any hospital stay is costly to patients, but the extended stays or readmissions for acute sepsis are particularly brutal and contribute to patient dissatisfaction, crushing financial burdens, fear of hospitals, and disproportionate care for minorities. The human and financial costs are deeply connected for all parties when errors that lead to prolonged sepsis occur, both in hospitals and beyond. Small hospitals lose approx. $10M annually in net margins. For large hospitals, that number increases to $34M. These frustrating statistics can be improved and all healthcare practitioners should strive for better compliance. Sepsis is the most preventable cause of death in hospitals; bundle compliance is proven to save lives and reduce length of stay.
6 AREAS YOUR SEPSIS DETECTION SOLUTION SHOULD ADDRESS
You can’t fix sepsis with your EHR or a simple patient tracker board. You need a proven, validated solution built for sepsis detection. Here are six things your platform should address:
1. END-TO-END SOLUTION It’s not just about the algorithm. It’s about an accretive solution that detects, tracks, and ensures complete delivery of the bundle elements.
2. EARLY DETECTION Configurable algorithms are a must so that the detection approach matches local needs and supports deploying different algorithms in different units.
3. EARLY INTERVENTION Directly firing a sepsis alert for a patient requires a provider to step in, review the case, & declare that the patient does indeed have sepsis.
4. TIMELY DELIVERY OF CARE ELEMENTS When the complete care bundle is delivered within defined time windows, remarkable improvements in the survivability of sepsis and in reductions of total care and length of stay are achieved.
5. AUTOMATED COMMUNICATION A solution’s functionality must provide automatic sepsis alerts & at-a-glance awareness of patient status, integrated into your EHR, enabling bedside & remote monitoring of large numbers of patients simultaneously.
6. CERTIFICATIONS You wouldn’t use non-FDA-approved bedside devices or implants, so why would you use uncleared digital health solutions? Certifications such as FDA, CE Marking, & ISO demonstrate a vendor has met a rigorous standard of excellence which is extremely important to your executive team & enhances your competitive advantage.
AMBIENT AWARE™ WITH SEPSIS DART™ SAVING TIME, LIVES & MONEY
The Ambient Clinical Analytics AWARE Platform including DART (Detection And Response Tool) uses Mayo Clinic co-developed & licensed technologies including over 1,330 rules and algorithms to give providers real-time point-of-care visualization of patients’ holistic condition by organ system.
AWARE detects and treats conditions like sepsis, reducing hospital stays and saving lives.
The DART platform drives timely intervention and completion of appropriate clinical processes for conditions such as Sepsis, ALI, VILI, AKI, MI, CHF, SSI, CLABSI, CAUTI, etc.
Following the CMS Sep-1 bundle compliance of sepsis treatment... • Reduces mortality by 7.5-10.5% • Produces an ROI of ~$1M for small to medium-sized hospitals and much more for larger hospitals & health systems - Roughly $4K per sepsis case
DART... • Increases sepsis compliance by 20% in under 30 days in high-performing organziations and even more in low-performing ones • Provides analytics and tools to automate the processes needed to treat sepsis on time • Delivers at-a-glance situational awareness • Allows for a tele-sepsis model and outsourcing • Is the ONLY FDA Class II cleared sepsis solution on the market
CASE STUDY
KEVIN KRONMILLER OVERCOMES 30% CHANCE OF SURVIVAL
THE PROBLEM: When Kevin Kronmiller was 22, he found out he had 5 years to live if he didn’t receive a liver transplant. Beating the odds, Kevin made it to 50 before having one. After his surgery, Kevin went into Septic Shock. He found out later from his physicians that he had a 30% chance of survival and even if he did survive, doctors were very concerned about long-term complications.
THE OUTCOME: Kevin’s physicians relied on Ambient Clinical Analytics’ AWARE Sepsis DART™ solution to notify them he was potentially septic. Using DART, physicians and nurses were guided through the care process, making sure Kevin received all the required Sepsis Bundle Elements. Because of this, Kevin not only survived sepsis but was able to return to living a normal life with no long-term sepsis complications. Watch the Kevin Kronmiller’s Story Here.