CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital Westover Hills
Congratulations to CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital Westover Hills, recipient of the 2026 Bill Aston Award for Quality, Academic Institution or Large Teaching Hospital/System, for its Sepsis Journey to Excellence. The hospital transformed its approach to sepsis care through standardization, accountability and high-reliability practices, achieving significant improvements in SEP-01 compliance, mortality and length of stay.
Building a More Reliable Response to Sepsis
In FY24, CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Westover Hills’ compliance with the SEP-01 sepsis bundle stood at 62%, indicating gaps in early identification and consistent delivery of care. The hospital made sepsis and SEP-01 performance a priority performance improvement project in FY25, with a focus on strengthening early detection and ensuring consistent delivery of evidence-based care.
The work took place amid significant organizational transitions, including an electronic health record conversion and leadership changes. Despite those changes, the hospital maintained its focus on building a more reliable, standardized approach to sepsis care.
Creating Consistency Across the Continuum
CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Westover Hills built a coordinated approach around high-reliability principles, standardizing sepsis workflows while strengthening frontline education, interdisciplinary collaboration and accountability. Daily performance monitoring and leadership engagement helped reinforce the work across the organization.
The effort also extended beyond the hospital. Partnerships with the Regional Advisory Council and regional EMS agencies helped strengthen pre-hospital sepsis protocols and support earlier identification and treatment. The OneCHRISTUS System Sepsis Playbook provided an additional framework for standardizing evidence-based practices and resources.
Turning Reliability Into Results
The impact can be seen across several measures. SEP-01 compliance increased from 62% in FY24 to 88% in FY25 and 92% in FY26 year to-date. Over the same period, observed sepsis mortality decreased from 10.08% to 6.63%, while the mortality index improved from 1.19 to 0.83. The sepsis length-of-stay ratio also decreased from 1.30 in FY25 to 1.11 in FY26 year-to-date.
Through standardization, accountability, interdisciplinary collaboration and high-reliability practices, CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Westover Hills has demonstrated sustained improvement in sepsis performance and patient outcomes.
Please join us in congratulating CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital Westover Hills, the 2026 Bill Aston Award for Quality Honorable Mention winner.
Bill Aston Award for Quality:
Academic Institution or Large Teaching Hospital/System
The Texas Hospital Association Bill Aston Award for Quality honors hospitals’ measurable success in improving quality and patient outcomes through the sustained implementation of a national and/or state evidence-based patient care initiative.