Identifying Signs of Sepsis Sooner with Remote Inpatient Monitoring
December 5, 2022
Experienced nurses in Ochsner’s remote inpatient monitoring center identify signs of sepsis and notify the care team so they can intervene sooner, resulting in a 56% decrease in sepsis mortality.
Ochsner Health System, based in New Orleans, designated a team of nurses to screen for risk of sepsis and act as a safety net for their counterparts working on the floor. These nurses work in a centralized location, away from the bedside, allowing them to monitor multiple patients at once. They follow up with bedside care teams to intervene when necessary. This arrangement increased nurse satisfaction by lightening the bedside workload and providing experienced nurses with a new career path that offers respite from intensive bedside nursing while still enabling them to practice at the top of their license. It’s also a safer arrangement for patients. Ochsner observed a decrease in sepsis mortality: the sepsis Risk Adjusted Mortality Index (RAMI) went down by more than half.
How They Did It
Identified patients potentially at risk for sepsis using a predictive model
Screened patients identified by the model remotely to assess their risk status
Communicated with at-risk patients’ bedside care teams to create treatment plans
Monitored at-risk patients remotely to ensure their conditions remain stable
