Bill Aston 2023 Award Winner Non-Research Non-Teaching Hospital Health System

St. Luke’s Health Texas Division

St. Luke’s Health was awarded THA’s Bill Aston Award for Quality for its Sepsis mortality improvement program.

Sepsis is a critical diagnosis frequently encountered in hospital settings. It represents a severe medical condition where delayed diagnosis can lead to the progression to severe sepsis or septic shock. Statistically, it affects approximately 1.7 million adults in the United States each year, with an alarming mortality rate of approximately 15.8%, equating to nearly 270,000 deaths annually. Due to its high mortality and significant financial impact, costing up to $50,000 per hospitalized patient, there is a pressing need to enhance early detection and management of sepsis. Currently, the Septic Shock Management Bundle (SEP-1) is widely used as a clinical quality improvement project to standardize and improve the care of patients with sepsis.

In 2019, the St. Luke’s Health Texas division, one of seven divisions in the CommonSpirit Health System, began its strategic journey to enhance sepsis care across 10 acute care hospitals. The Texas division created a Sepsis Committee composed of all hospitals where they collectively set on a journey to improve sepsis mortality with an initial goal of over 70% performance in in sepsis bundle compliance and the 75th percentile in sepsis mortality within 3 years.

The objective of the Texas Division Sepsis Task Force Committee was to improve sepsis care and reduce mortality for all acute care inpatient admissions. Key strategies to develop to accomplish this objective included:

1. Timely recognition of sepsis and initiation of the Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock: Management Bundle (SEP-1);
2. Efforts to improve physician documentation and coding to better record patients’ clinical conditions and improve risk-adjusted mortality estimates; and
3. Create an engaged multidisciplinary sepsis improvement team at all the hospitals.

Through the creation of standard work, best practice sharing, shared learnings from case reviews and education modules, the Texas Division Sepsis Task Force Committee achieved 75.8% compliance in FY23 (July – June) for the sepsis bundle and scored in the 86th percentile in FY23 (July-June) for sepsis mortality.

Please join us in congratulating St. Luke’s Health for being named the 2023 Bill Aston Award for Quality winner.