18 January 2019
This week we are celebrating the work of the Sepsis Collaborative who scooped the Exceptional Contribution to Quality, Research or Training Award at this year's Trust Awards.
The Sepsis Collaborative which started in 2015, certainly demonstrated this and include representation from emergency departments, paediatrics, maternity, acute oncology, CCOT, ITU, microbiology, audit, and coding.
Sepsis (also known as blood poisoning) is the immune system’s overreaction to an infection or injury. Normally our immune system fights infection – but sometimes, for reasons we don’t yet understand, it attacks our body’s own organs and tissues. If not treated immediately, sepsis can result in organ failure and death. Yet with early diagnosis, it can be treated with antibiotics.
The teams' achievements include developing and rolling out screening and management tools in emergency department wards, paediatrics and maternity. They are now consistently screening and delivering antibiotics within the golden hour in the emergency departments and are recognising patients earlier and, either preventing intensive care admission or, if they need to be admitted, they have been diagnosed earlier.
They have seen mortality rates drop due to sepsis and the team’s work has been such a success they have been awarded a grant from the Health Foundation to build on their fantastic achievements.
For this award, judges wanted to see those who had made a specific contribution to improving quality through research and/or training and evidence of the improvement of care to our patients.
