Systemwide Initiative Saves Lives by Reducing Sepsis

Her patient was ready to go home when he suddenly spiked a fever, recalls Nancy Dupree, R.N., a perioperative nurse at Sutter Health-affiliated Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley.

His sudden rise in temperature concerned Dupree, because she knew it was a potential warning sign for the deadly blood infection sepsis. Dupree screened the patient, who tested positive for sepsis, and she immediately provided lifesaving medication.

Just hours before her patient’s emergency, Dupree had completed a new Sutter Health training on the signs of sepsis—a potentially deadly complication from an infection.

“The first six hours really matter,” says Sean Townsend, M.D., physician lead for the Sutter Health sepsis initiative. "Without timely intervention, the patient can go into septic shock and die."

Starting in 2014, Sutter Health developed a standardized program to more rapidly identify and treat sepsis, the No. 1 killer of hospitalized patients in the United States. As a result of our systemwide initiative, we’ve reduced deaths from sepsis and septic shock by 33 percent across our affiliate sites. That translates into more than 500 lives saved.

Our work to standardize care delivery, provide care based on the latest evidence-based practices, improve documentation, decrease mortality and improve education for clinical teams has improved medical outcomes and quality of life for patients across the Sutter Health network.