Back to Basics – A Sepsis Success Story
Elevate Care Chicago North, located in Illinois, is a skilled nursing facility working to elevate the care residents receive. Director of Nursing Cristina Rodriguez recently collaborated with Telligen to tackle a large topic: rehospitalizations.
Back to Basics
Senior Quality Improvement Facilitator Sara Friel and Infection Prevention Specialist Jaime Zapata recently met with the Elevate Care Chicago North team to present a case study on sepsis and discuss best practices. Elevate Care Chicago North has a large ventilator unit and cares for high-acuity patients. Experiencing challenges with sepsis rates in the ventilator unit, Cristina Rodriguez took on a quality improvement project that got back to the basics of oral care and education.
The Elevate team began by auditing oral care and reviewing charts but wanted to dig deeper. Rodriguez sat down with the respiratory therapists and nursing staff to talk about what was happening and together, realized some gaps. As a result, education was provided in order to perform the best oral care for residents and the team ensured it happened three times a day. Further discoveries included staff members who didn’t have access to the area where oral care instruments were located, so the facility purchased oral care kits which are stored at the bedside and nurse’s station. Communication across departments also allowed the team to shift some responsibilities to the night shift staff. The Elevate team made small adjustments to their process which impacted readmission rates in a big way.
Results
From April to June 2024, Elevate Care Chicago North is proud to show a 70% relative improvement rate (RIR) for sepsis admissions in their ventilator unit.
Rodriguez admits feeling apprehensive when her team began the oral care program, saying that it felt like too simple of a solution. But she admits that until you try something, you’ll never know the outcome. “This wasn’t rocket science. It took a small change in our process, and week by week we figured out the best game plan for improvement.” While working on large-scale challenges like rehospitalization, sometimes it comes down to basic care. Rodriguez praises Elevate Care Chicago North for trusting her with infection prevention practices, for great support from management and for an amazing team culture.
70%
Relative Improvement Rate for Sepsis Admissions to the Ventilator Unit
The Telligen Connection
Rodriguez is grateful for the relationship with Telligen and for the support provided on this quality improvement project and beyond. “No one teaches you how to transition from being a floor nurse to implementing quality improvement projects that impact patient care. That’s why Telligen support matters – they were able to step in and provide us with a road map.” At Elevate Care Chicago North, the Audit Tracking Tool is used in QAPI meetings, for hand hygiene audits and more. Rodriguez has found many templates in Telligen’s Resource Library useful and said that if you’re looking for a tool or template, “Telligen has a form for that!”
Telligen’s Sara Friel said that she looked forward to working with Cristina and the Elevate Care Chicago North team because they were eager to try new things. “This was a gap they had identified and were open to implementing the tools and resources offered. Cristina took the tools and resources and ran with it – but didn’t stop there. She continued to investigate and found the root causes and addressed them. Her success is a true testament to working through the quality improvement process!”
