Inpatient Sepsis Improvement Plan

Setting an Aim

What are we trying to accomplish?

A written plan for your project – will provide your team with a shared clarity of purpose and expected outcomes, initial ideas for change, ways to measure progress towards goals, and a place to record team roles and responsibilities. Think about your purpose: a good aim statement should be specific and include a target and a time frame. An example might be:

By October 15, Surgical Ward 3B will correctly identify and treat hospital-acquired infections 95% of the time.

Defining your scope & preparing for action

Consider the scope of what you are trying to achieve – will you begin on one hospital ward and spread to others? Can you look at similar change projects that were successful and mimic their implementation plan? Are there related projects to build from, specific populations to target first, or constraints such as policies or guidelines that need to be followed? Are there staffing or financial resources to tap into?

How will the changes you are implementing affect existing processes or workflows in your organization, such as early warning scores (i.e., MEWS), internal medicine consults, Critical Care Outreach Teams (CCOT), Rapid Response Teams (RRT), or other pathways to escalate the care to a high acuity unit, ICU, or transfer to another facility? Will these pathways need to be included as part of your change processes?