Sepsis Custom Essay: POLICY, REGULATIONS AND ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Sepsis among patients is one of the major challenges concerning the healthcare systems
around the globe today (Fleischmann et al., 2017). According to the National Center for Health
Statistics, annually incidences of sepsis in the USA are continually rising. This is especially with
the patients who are admitted in the hospital setting especially with surgical and critical care
units. Despite the fight for the increase in the quality of care, patient safety, and satisfaction, a
number of mortalities still occur due to sepsis. A lot of funds are spent by the sector to manage
sepsis and its complications among patients. In 2014, Sepsis was the leading cause of high
medical costs in the nation, with annual expenditures to cater for the same rising up to
approximately $22.2 billion. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, one
out of three patients who die in the hospital succumb to sepsis.
Comparing compliance rates
I work for a large, 800 bed, inner-city hospital, located in Detroit Michigan. The
compliance rate to standard practices that prevent sepsis among patients who attend the facility
was approximated to be 25% in the research carried out in the last 6 months. This is relatively
low. Compliance to standards of sepsis prevention seems to be a challenge even to other
healthcare organizations. According to a report given by the National Center of Health statistics,
most organizations have a high prevalence of sepsis. This is linked to overcrowding of the
facilities as well as a shortage of staff. This makes it hard to follow the standard guidelines that
prevent incidences of sepsis among patients.
financial implications associated with compliance
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The compliance rate in sepsis prevention in the organization is relatively low. This has
cost the organization a lot of funds trying to cover up the mess. According to the last financial
year budget report, approximately 35% of funds were directed towards management of either
direct sepsis or complication associated with sepsis among patients admitted in the facility. This
led to running short of funds that were meant to support other developmental projects within the
facility. Some of the expenditures related to sepsis management was buying of strong antibiotics
and equipment to dress septic wounds as well as costs to sterilize the pieces of equipment. Sepsis
led to more readmissions in the hospital. The increased number of patients led to more workload
hence staff shortage prompting the management to employ more healthcare providers especially
nurses (Knoop et al., 216 ).
Importance of compliance in terms of policy, regulation, and finance.
compliance with the s6andard guidelines concerning sepsis prevention is very crucial.
Financially, it will prevent the use of unnecessary excess funds that could be used to support
other developmental projects. Compliance will ensure quality care, patient safety, and
satisfaction (Rhee et al., 2017). The length of hospital stay of patients will significantly reduce.
The workload among healthcare providers will be less hence ensuring more time is available to
attend to patients reducing medical errors and burn out amongst care providers. This will attract
more new customers who will seek healthcare services from the organization. The reverse is true
when there is a failure to comply with the standards. The hospital policies will seem not to be
working hence will be hard even to execute other policies in other areas. Hospital expenditures
will go high, there will be increased workload hence more medical errors will be expected to
reduce the quality of care and patient satisfaction.
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Changes that would improve compliance of a specific measure.
Formulation of new policies concerning sepsis prevention as well as reinforcement of the
existing policies will be the major change. Some of the policies include: Observation of standard
guidelines in caring for wounds will be the one priority that will reduce incidences of sepsis in
the organization. Upholding of the rules of hand washing will another change that will help in
compliance with sepsis management (Rhee et al., 2018). Some of the rules include washing
hands before interacting with the patient, after touching any of the patient surround such as the
beddings, before and after a procedure among others. Sterile procedures will also be expected to
be observed especially during insertion of catheters and when addressing wounds.
Postoperatively, the staff and the patients have to ensure that there will be compliance with the
given medication especially antibiotics.
The people affected by changes
The management and all individuals in position at various levels such as departmental
heads will be in the front line. This is in ensuring that the existing and the newly formulated
policies are taken seriously and followed. As well. Appropriate measures ought to be taken
against those who go against the given policies. The care providers on the ground will be
affected by changes in ensuring they follow the standard clinical guidelines when handling
patients. this is ensuring that even the patients are educated on the proper ways of handling
themselves such as in observing hygiene and complying with the medication.
Plan to implement changes
Various moves will be taken in ensuring the changes are implemented and maintained.
benchmarking of other organizations who have already improved on the sector will be the first
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move. Research activities on the situation on the ground in the organization concerning sepsis
will be carried out to determine the causes and possible ways out. the administration and other
persons in position will take time to amend the existing policies and introduce new ones aiming
at sepsis prevention. Then the staff will be trained on the best evidence-based practices to adopt
in order to reduce sepsis among patients especially in the surgical department (Bloos et al.,
2017). This will be carried out continually even after as a way to reinforce the changes and
ensure they are put into practice. The guidelines will be readily available on the soft boards in the
organization and in the social media walls to act as reminders.
Organizational barriers to change
Implementation of change will require extra funds. Therefore, it will take time for the
organization to squeeze in the budget and find some of the resources to support the changes. The
staff on the ground play a major part in ensuring the changes are put into practice. Therefore,
their willingness to adopt the change matters a lot. This is because most of them are used to the
routine way of doing things hence may take the time to take in the changes and use them. The
hospital patient population is also still high. This contributes to a large sum of resources that will
be required to implement the changes.
Strategies to overcome organizational barriers to change
Through research, the organization can be able to identify simple methods which are less
expensive to implement for the start. In terms of staff resistance, the staff ought to be well
prepared for the changes. They have to be actively involved in coming up with the changes first.
In research activities, they have to take a larger portion. Then, the training sessions ought to be
effective enough to make them understand the importance of the changes. Through this, they will
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readily take in the changes and comply with the policies and regulations. Hence quality care and
patient safety will be ensured.
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References
Bloos, F., Rüddel, H., Thomas-Rüddel, D., Schwarzkopf, D., Pausch, C., Harbarth, S., … &
Levy, M. M. (2017). Effect of a multifaceted educational intervention for anti-infectious
measures on sepsis mortality: a cluster randomized trial. Intensive care medicine, 43(11),
1602-1612.
Fleischmann, C., Thomas–Rueddel, D. O., Hartmann, M., Hartog, C. S., Welte, T., Heublein, S.,
… & Reinhart, K. (2016). Hospital incidence and mortality rates of sepsis: an analysis of
hospital episode (DRG) statistics in Germany from 2007 to 2013. Deutsches Ärzteblatt
International, 113(10), 159.
Knoop, S. T., Skrede, S., Langeland, N., & Flaatten, H. K. (2017). Epidemiology and impact on
all-cause mortality of sepsis in Norwegian hospitals: A national retrospective study. PLoS
One, 12(11), e0187990.
Rhee, C., Dantes, R., Epstein, L., Murphy, D. J., Seymour, C. W., Iwashyna, T. J., … & Jernigan,
J. A. (2017). Incidence and trends of sepsis in US hospitals using clinical vs claims data,
2009-2014. Jama, 318(13), 1241-1249.
Rhee, C., Jones, T., Hamad, Y., Pande, A., Varon, J., O’Brien, C., … & Klompas, M. (2018,
November). 110. The Burden and Preventability of Sepsis-Associated Mortality in 6 US
Acute Care Hospitals. In Open Forum Infectious Diseases (Vol. 5, No. suppl_1, pp. S1-
S2). US: Oxford University Press.
