Last week’s article talked about how Vital Signs can represent the three types of data we use in quality improvement analytics. This week we explore what happens if we miss one of those vital signs and why data integration is so important in healthcare
When a code sepsis protocol was initiated to help my facility meet the CMS Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock core measure,[1] we found that the obstetrics wing of the hospital was calling about three sepsis alerts per week. This result was much higher than we expected.
We thought it might be human error, or maybe the normal signs of labor skewed the sepsis assessment? The existing research did not mention obstetrics as a high-risk population. But when we went to the bedside it became apparent that these patients were really sick, teetering on the edge of septic shock.
If they were truly sick, how did we miss it? Was this a new thing, or had we missed it all along?
By Gayle Porter
