‘Sepsis does not discriminate’
September is Sepsis Awareness Month. Officials want you to know how hospitals fight sepsis and when to speak up.
Key takeaways:
- Sepsis is when your body responds improperly to an infection. It can be deadly if not treated early.
- Hospitals have rigorous sepsis protocols, but patients should also speak up if they have concerns.
- Sepsis prevention involves healthy habits, like hand hygiene and controlling chronic conditions, to prevent infections in the first place.
On May 8, 2012, Tony Galbo knew the word “sepsis” was one to make your ears perk up.
He was at a Champaign, Illinois, hospital where his five-year-old daughter Gabby was fighting for her life with what was later confirmed to be Rocky Mountain spotted fever as the result of a tick bite.
Gabby died of sepsis, a condition where your body responds improperly to an infection, three days later. The heartbreak led Tony and his family to become intimately familiar with sepsis. They’re now advocates for sepsis awareness, both ensuring health care providers are following best practices and patients are speaking up.
“I remember slamming every object around me,” in the days following Gabby’s death, Tony Galbo recalls. “I said ‘there’s gotta be a law to protect patients, especially children.’,”
Sepsis and septic shock
Many of the things the Galbo family advocates for to this day are already in place at OSF HealthCare.
Kurt Bloomstrand, MD, is chair of emergency services at OSF HealthCare Heart of Mary Medical Center in Urbana, Illinois. He says aside from following established, rigid protocol, OSF Heart of Mary is going the extra mile for sepsis prevention in a couple of ways. One, the hospital is leading the OSF Ministry in continuing sepsis screening and alerts for people after they are admitted (not just in the emergency department). And two, the facility is among the top 10% of hospitals in the country in following sepsis protocol as measured by the United States Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Those CMS core measures include giving antibiotics and fluids and rechecking a person’s vital signs in a timely manner.
“We’re trying to identify a set of signs called the systemic inflammatory response syndrome, or SIRS,” Dr. Bloomstrand says. “Those include a fever, a fast heart rate, fast breathing and elevated or low white blood cell count. If someone has any two of those with a source of infection, we consider them possibly septic. We want to establish treatment for them very quickly.”
Treatment includes antibiotic medication or intravenous fluids along with continued testing to pinpoint the problem.
“We take this extremely seriously because we know time is tissue. The sooner we get the treatment, the better the outcome.” Dr. Bloomstrand adds. “Any person who comes into one of our emergency departments, no matter the cause, will be screened for sepsis right from the start. When we get your vital signs, that’s screening for sepsis. If you flag positive, there are alerts that go out to our staff. Then it walks us through a very specific sepsis algorithm for treatment.”
“We take this extremely seriously because we know time is tissue. The sooner we get the treatment, the better the outcome. Any person who comes into one of our emergency departments, no matter the cause, will be screened for sepsis right from the start. When we get your vital signs, that’s screening for sepsis. If you flag positive, there are alerts that go out to our staff. Then it walks us through a very specific sepsis algorithm for treatment.”
What you can do
Dr. Bloomstrand says young kids, older adults and people with serious health conditions like heart disease and diabetes are at a higher risk for sepsis. Your best bet to prevent sepsis is to practice healthy habits and prevent infection in the first place.
- Wash your hands frequently, especially after touching high-germ areas in public like a doorknob.
- Avoid touching your face.
- Sneeze and cough into your elbow or a tissue.
- Stay home when you’re sick.
- Treat wounds and bug bites properly, quickly and under guidance from a health care provider. Dr. Bloomstrand notes that pets can also harbor ticks that can cause serious illness.
Dr. Bloomstrand adds that hospital staff are empowered to speak up if they spot a possible sepsis case. But you can also speak up on behalf of yourself or a loved one about what sepsis surveillance is being done.
“It’s appropriate to make sure you are asking these questions just to make sure you’re keeping it at the front of the care provider’s mind,” Dr. Bloomstrand says.
“If we don’t catch sepsis soon enough, it can result in organ dysfunction,” he adds. “There may be long-term complications with their kidneys, such as needing dialysis. If their lungs fail, there may be long-term respiratory issues. There may be brain issues, so they have mental status changes long-term.”
Gabby’s Law
On August 18, 2016, then-Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner came to Presence Covenant Medical Center (now OSF Heart of Mary) to sign Gabby’s Law.
“Senate Bill 2403 requires hospitals to adopt evidence-based protocols for the early recognition and treatment of patients with sepsis, severe sepsis or septic shock that are based on generally accepted standards of care,” the Governor’s office said at the time. “It requires the protocols contain certain components, including those specific to identifying and treating adults and children.”
Tony Galbo recalls many meetings with lawmakers, health care groups and other stakeholders to get the plan the support it needed. And that wasn’t the end. He’s testified before lawmakers in other states and in Washington, D.C., and done countless interviews.
“Sepsis does not discriminate. It does not care about age,” Galbo says.