Quality studies show ways to reduce sepsis deaths, C. diff cases

More RN hours are associated with improved sepsis outcomes, according to a study published last week on JAMA Health Forum. The cross-sectional study of 1,958 acute care hospitals and more than 700,000 Medicare beneficiaries with a 2018 diagnosis of sepsis found that an increase in RN hours per patient day was linked to a 3% decline in the likelihood of death at 60 days. Separately, Cherith Walter, a clinical nurse specialist at Emory Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta, discussed how increasing patient testing for C difficile during the first three days of hospital admission was a key intervention in reducing hospital-onset C difficile. Walter’s interdisciplinary team’s interventions ─ published last month in the American Journal of Infection Control ─ reduced hospital-onset C. diff cases by 63%, compared with two years prior. (MedPage Today article, 6/1/22)