• Wendy R Moore, Alicia Vermuelen, Rachelle Taylor, David Kihara, and Erik Wahome.
• J Emerg Nurs. 2019 Nov 1; 45 (6): 690-698.

ProblemSepsis, a life-threatening condition, can rapidly progress to death. The Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting program has implemented bundled care metrics for sepsis care, but timely completion of these interventions is challenging. Best-practice interventions could improve patient outcomes and reimbursement. The purpose of this project was to improve the timeliness of sepsis recognition and implementation of bundled care interventions in the emergency department.MethodsThis evidence-based practice improvement project implemented a Detect, Act, Reassess, Titrate (DART)-based nursing protocol embedded within a checklist communication tool in the emergency department of a tertiary level-2 trauma center. Data comparisons between preintervention and post-DART protocol/checklist implementation included compliance with the individual Inpatient Quality Reporting 3-hour bundled elements, number of hospital days, and time to screen. Staff also completed a survey designed to assess their satisfaction with the DART algorithm/checklist. The Pearson χ2 test was used to assess bundled-care intervention variables. Wilcoxon rank sum tests were used to explore hospitalization outcomes. Staff satisfaction survey results were summarized.ResultsImprovement was statistically significant for lactate levels, blood cultures, and early antibiotic administration in the intervention period compared with baseline. Time to screen, ED length of stay, and number of hospital days improved between baseline and the intervention period, with an average number of hospital days decreasing by 2.5 days. Compliance with all Inpatient Quality Reporting metrics increased from 30% to 80%.DiscussionWhen the nurse-driven protocol and communication tool were implemented, compliance with time-sensitive sepsis bundled interventions improved significantly. The outcomes suggest nurse-driven protocols can improve sepsis outcomes.Copyright © 2019 Emergency Nurses Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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