Sepsis in post-acute care toolkit

Recommendation

• Adopt an evidence-based tool for staff to use to assess changes in a patient’s health status.
• Have a system in place for notifying a supervisor if a staff member notices a change in the patient’s health status.
• Adopt an evidence-based treatment protocol that has time-specific treatment goals for clinicians to follow when there is a suspicion of sepsis.
• Provide regular education and training for staff on the provider’s sepsis protocol.

Rationale

• Utilizing a standardized screening tool is an effective strategy to aid in the early recognition of sepsis.
• For facilities that have the capacity to begin treatment, use of a standard treatment bundle for sepsis is effective in reducing mortality.

Tools

• INTERACT Stop and Watch tool in English and Spanish
• Seeing Sepsis algorithm for skilled nursing facilities