Every patient in the health care environment is at risk for the development of sepsis. Sepsis is one of the leading causes of death in the United States and the number one cause of death in intensive care units. The mortality rate for severe sepsis is extremely high, anywhere between 20% and 60% dependent on severity. Patients can be under or misdiagnosed when clinicians don’t recognize sepsis due to generalized symptoms and/or co-morbidities. The literature identifies this phenomenon as “failure to rescue” (FTR). It reflects the quality of monitoring and the effectiveness of actions taken once early complications are recognized. Clinicians often accept preventable causes as an unfortunate part of illness. The project purpose was to design and implement a transformational, organizational system change derived from evidence based practice (EBP) that would improve the identification and earlier treatment of patients that exhibit sepsis symptomatology. Specifically, in hospitalized adult patients, what effect the utilization of a standardized sepsis screening tool by nurses has on identifying septic patients earlier, communicating results sooner, and implementing interventions more rapidly in a community hospital.
