Sepsis is not an infection. Rather, it’s your bodies overwhelming reaction to an infection and can lead to some serious health issues. In fact, sepsis is the #1 cause of death for patients in hospitals.
Sepsis definitions and protocols have been around for some time, but have been undergoing major changes. Additionally, sepsis is under scrutiny from CMS at the federal level and is subject to public reporting in many states. All of this, plus the importance of quickly diagnosing and treating the condition puts clinicians in a difficult spot. Many times they’ll find themselves treating to the protocol, even when their clinical instincts suggest something else.
In that regard, sepsis proves to be a very instructive topic in our never-ending quest to unravel the business of healthcare.
On this episode, we’ll talk with Michael Ackerman who’s an Acute Care Nurse Practitioner and an Associate Director and Professor at Niagara University School of Nursing. Michael is an expert on the topic who speaks on it across the country. He’ll help us understand what we’re up against and why it’s so complicated from both a clinical and administrative standpoint. We discuss:
- What is sepsis?
- How is sepsis diagnosed?
- Why it’s so important to diagnose and treat quickly.
- Why protocols and definitions continue to change.
- How new definitions of sepsis seem to be at odds with public reporting.
- How this impacts the clinicians and their ability to treat.
- How public reporting and media impact the approach.
- How proper identification and treatment impact healthcare costs.
- Why we need to focus on quality, but can’t ignore the patient experience, the costs of care or the value that you bring to that care.
- What it all means to the patient and how we can protect ourselves.
- Why hospital administrators need to take the long-view.
- How a Sepsis-team can drive tremendous value to the hospital.
- The importance of incorporating new technology.
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Michael Ackerman’s Background:
Michael (Mike) Ackerman has held just about every role nurse could; from Candy Striper to Senior Director. His entire career has been in the critical care arena from staff nurse, nurse manager, clinical nurse specialist, nurse practitioner and most recently senior director of nursing. He has over 50 publications as well as several funded studies.
In addition, he has held leadership roles in academia. Mike has a passion for critical care nursing. This is evident in his much sought after presentations on a variety of critical care topics. He also has a passion for the “Crucial Conversations” program which he has implemented in two of his recent institutions. This implementation has been a catalyst in much of Mike’s work in the area of culture change.
Mike is a skilled clinician, avid researcher, motivational speaker and caring leader. Leading from the bedside has been a consistent theme in Mike’s career.
Check out Mike’s facebook group: Stop the Silence in Healthcare and learn more about him here: www.ackermanhealthcareconsulting.com
Michael will be speaking at The National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition in Houston from May 22-25.
Mentioned on the Show
Mike mentioned a book on the episode called Take this Book to the Hospital With You. It’s a consumer guide to surviving your hospital stay. I’ve never read that one, but I’m currently reading The Patient Survival Guide: 8 simple solutions to prevent hospital and healthcare-associated infections by a friend of the show Dr. Maryanne McGuckin and Toni L. Goldfarb.
Doctor Turns Up Possible Treatment For Deadly Sepsis – Dr. Paul Marik uses Vitamin C to treat Sepsis cases with great success.
Sepsis Alliance – On a mission to save lives and reduce suffering by raising awareness of Sepsis as a medical emergency.
About the Infection Prevention and Control Series
This episode is part of The #HCBiz Show’s Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) series. We’d like to thank our partners InfectionControl.tips and the Center of Excellence for Infection Prevention and Control (COE IPAC) for their support and guidance with the series.
About InfectionControl.tips
InfectionControl.tips is a Pan-Access journal that extends globally and touches locally. www.IC.tips is: Free to Publish. Free to Access and provides Accessible Scientific Services.
About Center of Excellence for Infection Prevention and Control (COE IPAC)
Center of Excellence for Infection Prevention and Control (COE IPAC) is a collaborative effort to accelerate and support new solutions that hold the promise of significantly advancing infection prevention and control. On a quarterly basis, the Center of Excellence will evaluate at least 3 international innovations – giving them access to independent testing, publication as well as a US commercialization site
The #HCBiz Show! is produced by Glide Health IT, LLC in partnership with Netspective Media.
Soundtrack credit: Acid Lounge by FoolBoyMedia