Sepsis Alert Workflow and the Metrics Used to Measure its Soundness

Sepsis Alert Workflow
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Institution
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Workflow
Background/ Introduction
Sepsis is a serious infection where there is spread of germs throughout the body's blood and tissues. Sepsis alert is normally initiated when it is suspected that the patient is infected with 2 out of 4 of the Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS). In the workflow, there is graphic representation of the status of the tasks and the stages of the process of sepsis alert are linked to each other. The tasks are planned to work as intended where resources are allocated and health practitioners directly involved in the process. There is greater control over this process when they are organized in a workflow and there is clarity on which processes need to be completed. The workflows are useful to ensure the essential tasks are finished and this reduces errors where there is ease in the flow of information.
Explanation of the process
The SIRS (Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome) criteria depends on the Temperature, Heart rate (HR) 90/min Respiratory rate (RR) White blood cell count (WBC) (Singer et al ., 2016). The criteria are considered in the sepsis alert workflow where the physician is first contacted when there is sepsis screening. There is collection of the patient information, which is communicated to the health team where necessary through messaging and phone calls. The information required is whether the alerts are urgent or non urgent where the appropriate information tools help to trigger appropriate alerts.
After notifying the physician there is patient evaluation for the individuals suspected to have severe shock when they have two or more SIRS criteria, and it is either the meet the 2+ SIRs criteria or not. The physician and nurses are directly involved in monitoring the patient health conditions and wearable or wireless monitors are useful to upload information into the electronic medical record (EMR). This technology is necessary to optimize the delivery of alerts where electronic support systems are integrated in hospital settings (Harrison et al., 2016). Furthermore, when there is alert less than 30 minutes this helps to prevent severe sepsis, septic shock, and death. Information about progress is required to avoid delay in relaying patient information and data availability.
After determining whether the patients meet the sepsis criteria, there is focus on the screening lab tests including sepsis screening and drawing blood culture. The lab technicians and nurses are involved in the process. The policy is to put the patient under constant monitoring when there is a risk of deterioration to avoid adverse health outcomes. This is undertaken while implementing treatment guidelines, since this helps to identify the patients more accurately (McColl et al., 2017). Patient health information and data will influence decisions on whether to change sepsis monitoring.
Evaluation of the risk to multiple organ dysfunctions is an important attempt to inform decision makers on decision making to improve the overall health. Patients are at high risk of developing acute renal dysfunction, which increases the chances of a poor health outcome. The basic monitoring in septic shock includes the time diuresis, p...