Adoption of sepsis bundles in the emergency room and intensive care unit: A model for quality improvement*

Implementation of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Early identification and appropriate management of sepsis improves outcomes. Despite convincing data showing the benefits of early recognition and treatment of sepsis and septic shock, implementation of such evidence-based therapy is suboptimal. This review describes methods that have been shown to improve bedside application of the evidence-based guidelines.

RECENT FINDINGS

The Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) has developed guidelines for the management of severe sepsis and septic shock. The initial SSC guidelines were published in 2004; as evidence continued to evolve, the guidelines were updated, with the most recent iteration published in 2016. Guidelines by themselves can take years to change clinical practice. To affect more rapid change, the SSC guidelines are filtered into bundles to impact behavior change in a simple and uniform way.

SUMMARY

Implementation of the SSC bundles revolves around practice improvement measures. Hospitals that have successfully implemented these bundles have consistently shown improved outcomes and reductions in healthcare spending. Finally, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has approved SSC bundle compliance as a core measure, and hospitals in the United States are mandated to collect and report their data regularly to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Sepsis Bundles and Compliance With Clinical Guidelines

Realizing the vast medical benefits of validated protocols, recommendations and practice guidelines requires acceptance and implementation by frontline care providers. Knowledge translation is the science of accelerating the transfer of knowledge to practice by understanding and creatively addressing the barriers that prevent adoption of new professional standards. In an attempt to improve patient care and reduce mortality, the Surviving Sepsis Campaign and The Institute for Healthcare Improvement created the resuscitation and management bundles for patients with severe sepsis and septic shock. These bundles have been accepted as best practice by many clinicians since multiple clinical trials have produced similar positive results when they were implemented. However, transferring these research outcomes-based guidelines to the clinical practice arena has been associated with poor compliance due to important barriers to implementation. Delays in the adoption of sepsis bundles are not surprising since the time from validation to implementation of a new clinical practice is typically 17 years. Using sepsis bundles as a model, this article explores why guidelines are important, examines physician adherence to protocols, and reviews the literature on strategies to improve clinical compliance and enhance knowledge translation.

The influence of early hemodynamic optimization on biomarker patterns of severe sepsis and septic shock

BACKGROUND

Despite abundant experimental studies of biomarker patterns in early severe sepsis and septic shock, human data are few. Further, the impact of the severity of global tissue hypoxia resulting from resuscitative strategies on these early biomarker patterns remains unknown.

METHODS

The temporal patterns of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist, intercellular adhesion molecule-1, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, caspase-3, and interleukin-8 were serially examined over the first 72 hrs of hospitalization after early hemodynamic optimization strategies of early goal-directed vs. standard therapy for severe sepsis and septic shock patients. The relationship of these biomarker patterns to each hemodynamic optimization strategy, severity of global tissue hypoxia (reflected by lactate and central venous oxygen saturation), organ dysfunction, and mortality were examined.

RESULTS

Abnormal biomarker levels were present upon hospital presentation and modulated to distinct patterns within 3 hrs based on the hemodynamic optimization strategy. The temporal expression of these patterns over 72 hrs was significantly associated with the severity of global tissue hypoxia, organ dysfunction, and mortality.

CONCLUSION

In early severe sepsis and septic shock, within the first 3 hrs of hospital presentation, distinct biomarker patterns emerge in response to hemodynamic optimization strategies. A significant association exists between temporal biomarker patterns in the first 72 hrs, severity of global tissue hypoxia, organ dysfunction, and mortality. These findings identify global tissue hypoxia as an important contributor to the early inflammatory response and support the role of hemodynamic optimization in supplementing other established therapies during this diagnostic and therapeutic "window of opportunity."