Series 18: Think Sepsis: Improving Care, Saving Lives

Sep­sis is a life-threat­en­ing com­pli­ca­tion of infec­tion that can affect peo­ple of any age. Ear­ly recog­ni­tion is crit­i­cal; the soon­er sep­sis is iden­ti­fied, the soon­er life-sav­ing treat­ment can begin. Ear­ly detec­tion can reduce com­pli­ca­tions, short­en hos­pi­tal stays and improve sur­vival.

The Sep­sis Improve­ment project is part of the CEIH’s Pri­or­i­ty Focus Area: Clin­i­cal Excel­lence and Safe­ty reflect­ing our com­mit­ment to safer care and bet­ter out­comes for South Aus­tralians.

This show­case series high­lights work under­way across our Local Health Net­works, as well as state and nation­al efforts to reduce sep­sis-relat­ed ill­ness and deaths. Ses­sions fea­ture clin­i­cal and ser­vice improve­ments, research and data, along­side con­sumer sto­ries that share patient and fam­i­ly per­spec­tives of sepsis. 

Episode 55: Grass­roots strate­gies to improve region­al sep­sis response

Pre­sen­ters:
Bian­ca New­bery (ANUM Infec­tion Con­trol and Port Augus­ta Dial­y­sis Unit, FUNL­HN)
Janine Con­nell (Exec­u­tive Officer/​Director of Nurs­ing, FUNL­HN)
Car­o­line Din­gle (Con­sumer)

In this episode, the Flinders and Upper North Local Health Net­work (FUNL­HN) shares its review of sep­sis iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and man­age­ment across its diverse ser­vices, from region­al hos­pi­tals to remote clin­ics, and how it has strength­ened core process­es to sup­port ear­li­er and more con­fi­dent recog­ni­tion. Con­sumer Car­o­line Din­gle speaks about her expe­ri­ence of post‑natal sep­sis, high­light­ing the impor­tance of time­ly identification. 

Episode 56: Improv­ing sep­sis care in SAL­HN: A vir­tu­al reg­istry proof-of-concept

Pre­sen­ters:
Pro­fes­sor Andrew Bersten (Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Research, SAL­HN)
Lyn White­way (Health Con­sumer Advi­sor, SNAP Glob­al Tri­al Steer­ing Com­mit­tee, Co-Chair, SNAP Con­sumer Advi­so­ry Group)

This episode out­lines South­ern Ade­laide Local Health Network’s (SAL­HN) ear­ly work on a sep­sis vir­tu­al reg­istry. Using a Learn­ing Health Sys­tem approach, SAL­HN co‑designed tools that use exist­ing EMR data to pro­vide clin­i­cians with time­ly insights to sup­port con­tin­u­ous improve­ment. Con­sumer Lyn White­way rein­forces the impor­tance of ear­ly recog­ni­tion and con­sis­tent, best‑practice sep­sis care. 

Episode 57: Sep­sis data in West­ern Aus­tralia: Cur­rent state and future directions

Pre­sen­ter:
Ben McFad­den (Senior Data Sci­en­tist, West­ern Aus­tralia Depart­ment of Health)

This ses­sion show­cas­es how West­ern Aus­tralia is using data to bet­ter under­stand and mon­i­tor sep­sis.
It explores the devel­op­ment and use of a sep­sis dash­board includ­ing data sources, ana­lyt­i­cal meth­ods, and design con­sid­er­a­tions used to visu­alise and com­mu­ni­cate sep­sis-relat­ed infor­ma­tion. The ses­sion also explores cur­rent lim­i­ta­tions and future plans, includ­ing a sep­sis data reg­istry to sup­port sur­veil­lance and qual­i­ty improvement.

Episode 58: Strength­en­ing sep­sis sur­vivor­ship and best prac­tice care

Pre­sen­ters:
Jacob Dye (Senior Research Fel­low, Crit­i­cal Care and Sep­sis Aus­tralia, The George Insti­tute for Glob­al Health, Sep­sis sur­vivor)
Fiona Gray (Sep­sis Survivor/​Health Consumer)

This ses­sion high­lights ini­tia­tives to improve sep­sis sur­vivor­ship sup­port across the health sys­tem. Jacob Dye draws on best prac­tice guide­lines devel­oped by The George Insti­tute for Glob­al Health and the Aus­tralian Com­mis­sion on Safe­ty and Qual­i­ty in Health­care, to explore emerg­ing mod­els of care and nation­al pri­or­i­ty areas. Fiona Gray shares her lived expe­ri­ence, offer­ing valu­able insight into recov­ery after sep­sis and the sup­ports that make a mean­ing­ful difference.