HHS Sepsis Rates Down, Patient Safety Up

Lise Diebel
Photo of Bonnie Buchko, with title of the article on the left, HHS Sepsis Rates Down. Patient Safety Up

Thank you to the team at Hamilton Health Sciences for sharing your safety story with our Subscriber community. Through sharing experiences and successes, our Subscriber community can scale learnings across the Reciprocal. If your organization has a story, reach out to us at [email protected].

Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) has made a major improvement in preventing sepsis, according to year-over-year data from 2024-25.

Sepsis is a life-threatening condition caused by an out-of-control response to an infection, and it’s the deadliest health condition in the world, killing more people globally than cancer. Preventing hospital-acquired sepsis is a strategic priority for HHS. The goal for the 2024–25 fiscal year, which ended March 31, was to reduce the rate of in-hospital sepsis by 16 per cent.

“We’re pleased to share that our teams surpassed this goal by achieving a 23 per cent reduction,” says Bonnie Buchko, a continuous quality improvement (CQI) coach with the HHS quality and value improvement program.

Why Some Patients Get Infections in Hospital

It can be harder for patients who are sick or recovering from surgery to fight off germs, making them more susceptible to infection due to a weakened immune system. Cuts, surgical incisions, or medical devices like catheters and IV lines can give bacteria a way into the body.

Close contact with people can also play a factor, and hospitals are full of staff, patients and visitors which increases the chance of spreading germs. As well, some germs can be tough to kill because they’ve become resistant to antibiotics.

How We Made Improvements
 

  • Bundles: A bundle is a small set of best practices that lead to better outcomes. Teams across HHS are now using bundles to help prevent central line-associated bloodstream infections and catheter-associated urinary tract infections.
     
  • Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI): Teams across HHS have daily CQI huddles where conversations include ideas for improving patient care. Conversations at huddles and process observation of bundles for central line-associated bloodstream infections and catheter-associated urinary tract infections have resulted in greater consistency of best practices. Teams are monitoring local results and advancing improvement work.
     
  • Making it easy to do the right thing. The creation of dressing change kits, easy access to line change label stickers, using task reminders in the hospital’s Epic electronic medical records system, and ready access to linens are just a few examples of the changes teams are putting into action.
     
  • SterileCare’s KiteLock solution: KiteLock is a new and advanced product for keeping these central lines clean and bacteria-free. This solution, used to clean IV lines, has been implemented in 15 units across HHS, leading to a significant reduction in central line-associated bloodstream infections.
     
  • Hand hygiene rates: Hand hygiene rates are increasing across HHS, helping to reduce the spread of infections.

Celebrating Success

“These results reflect the impact of many teams working together toward a common goal,” says Buchko. “Using the CQI system to improve consistency of best practices has been a win for our patients. In the last year there have been 41 fewer patients impacted by in-hospital sepsis, down to 151 cases from 192.”

This includes such things as cleaning hands before actions like shaking hands with a patient or helping them sit up in bed. Reducing hospital-acquired infections and sepsis even further remains a priority for HHS, says Buchko.

By Lise Diebel, Communications Advisor, HHS

If your organization has a story, reach out to us at [email protected]. Together we can turn the corner on patient safety.