Enhancing Sepsis Outcomes: A 7-Year Multidisciplinary Endeavor.

Regulatory bodies in the United States have implemented quality metrics aimed at improving outcomes for patients with severe sepsis and septic shock. The current study was a quality improvement (QI) project in a community-based academic center aimed at improving adherence to sepsis quality metrics, time to antibiotic administration, and patient outcomes. Electronic health record systems were utilized to capture sepsis-related data.

Using a Data-Driven Improvement Methodology to Decrease Surgical Site Infections in a Community Neurosurgery Practice: Optimizing Preoperative Screening and Perioperative Antibiotics.

Objective: We used a data-driven methodology to decrease the departmental surgical site infection rate to a goal of 1%.

Methods: A prospective interventional study with historical controls comparing preimplementation/intervention (unknown methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus [MSSA]/methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus [MRSA] status and standard weight and drug allergy-based preoperative antibiotics) with postimplementation/intervention (optimized preoperative chlorhexidine showers, MSSA/MRSA screening, MSSA/MRSA decolonization, and optimized preoperative antibiotic order set implementation). The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program was used for case surveillance.

Drive-through Satellite Testing: An Efficient Precautionary Method of Screening Patients for SARS-CoV-2 in a Rural Healthcare Setting.

The first documented case of COVID-19 in the United States occurred on January 30th, 2020. Soon after, a global pandemic was declared in March 2020 with each state issuing stay at home orders based on population, risk for community transmission and current number of positive cases. A priority for each region was to develop efficient systems for testing large patient volumes in a safe manner to reduce the risk of community transmission.