• Majid Afshar, Erum Arain, Chen Ye, Emily Gilbert, Meng Xie, Josh Lee, Matthew M Churpek, Ramon Durazo-Arvizu, Talar Markossian, and Cara Joyce.
• Department of Medicine, Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, IL.
• Crit. Care Med. 2019 Oct 1; 47 (10): 1371-1379.

ObjectivesAssess patient outcomes in patients with suspected infection and the cost-effectiveness of implementing a quality improvement program.Design, Setting, And ParticipantsWe conducted an observational single-center study of 13,877 adults with suspected infection between March 1, 2014, and July 31, 2017. The 18-month period before and after the effective date for mandated reporting of the sepsis bundle was examined. The Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score and culture and antibiotic orders were used to identify patients meeting Sepsis-3 criteria from the electronic health record.InterventionsThe following interventions were performed as follows: 1) multidisciplinary sepsis committee with sepsis coordinator and data abstractor; 2) education campaign; 3) electronic health record tools; and 4) a Modified Early Warning System.Main Outcomes And MeasuresPrimary health outcomes were in-hospital death and length of stay. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was calculated and the empirical 95% CI for the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was estimated from 5,000 bootstrap samples.ResultsIn multivariable analysis, the odds ratio for in-hospital death in the post- versus pre-implementation periods was 0.70 (95% CI, 0.57-0.86) in those with suspected infection, and the hazard ratio for time to discharge was 1.25 (95% CI, 1.20-1.29). Similarly, a decrease in the odds for in-hospital death and an increase in the speed to discharge was observed for the subset that met Sepsis-3 criteria. The program was cost saving in patients with suspected infection (-$272,645.7; 95% CI, -$757,970.3 to -$79,667.7). Cost savings were also observed in the Sepsis-3 group.Conclusions And RelevanceOur health system's program designed to adhere to the sepsis bundle metrics led to decreased mortality and length of stay in a cost-effective manner in a much larger catchment than just the cohort meeting the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services measures. Our single-center model of interventions may serve as a practice-based benchmark for hospitalized patients with suspected infection.

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