Wolters Kluwer, Huntsville Hospital Pilot Study on Reduction of Sepsis Mortality & Morbidity

April 9, 2015 — Wolters Kluwer, a leading global provider of information for healthcare professionals and students, announced today that the preliminary findings of its joint study with Huntsville Hospital in Alabama to reduce the morbidity and mortality of sepsis will be presented during HIMSS15 in Chicago. The presentation, “A Multidisciplinary Approach to Combating Sepsis,” will take place on April 14 from 4-5 p.m. in room W192. Stephen Claypool, MD, of Wolters Kluwer (Booth #8103) and Joycelyn Craighead of Huntsville Hospital will discuss how using POC Advisor™ reduced sepsis-related mortality by 53 percent and 30-day readmissions by 30 percent.

Sepsis is the most common cause of death in hospital critical care units, annually claiming an estimated 8 million lives worldwide, including 258,000 in the U.S. Hospitals spend an estimated $20 billion annually fighting sepsis, making it the country’s single most expensive condition to treat. As a result, hospitals nationwide are following the example set by Huntsville Hospital and making reduction of sepsis severity and mortality a top priority.

“Lessening sepsis severity and lowering mortality rates is a significant aspect of Huntsville’s long-term quality improvement strategy, so the decision to partner with Wolters Kluwer on this potentially life-saving pilot study was easy,” said Craighead, Director of Quality, Huntsville Hospital. “Importantly, our clinical staff embraced the opportunity to have a hand in developing a highly effective approach to combating sepsis, largely because they were already familiar with and trusted the medical evidence and decision support tools that would drive the program.”

“Clinician engagement was imperative to the success of this pilot study,” added Claypool, Vice President of Clinical Development and Informatics, Wolters Kluwer, Clinical Solutions, noting that early diagnosis and treatment are elusive because sepsis initially presents subtly and shares common symptoms with multiple illnesses. “Physicians and nurses alike needed to be able to fully trust that alerts were triggered only when a patient was septic. That is why it was vital for us to spend time creating hundreds of disease-specific rules, which ensured that the alerts triggered were highly sensitive and specific, as well as patient-specific and evidence-based.”

Central to the pilot study was POC Advisor, a unique cloud-based point of care platform that addresses complex clinical challenges like sepsis by leveraging the electronic health record (EHR) investment a healthcare organization has already made. Built on the proven Sentri7® surveillance infrastructure, POC Advisor uses the patient data within the EHR to help detect escalating conditions early and pushes to clinicians patient-specific, evidence-based alerts with very high sensitivity/specificity via mobile and other computing devices—all with the goal of improving clinical outcomes and lowering costs.

This is accomplished by integrating key functionality from several Wolters Kluwer clinical decision support (CDS) and other leading products including UpToDate®; Lexicomp®; Medi-Span®; ProVation® clinical content, powered by Lippincott Nursing Solutions and UpToDate; Language Engine®; and Wolters Kluwer Surveillance Engine. The addition of change management to build and refine clinical protocols, provide education on the latest evidence and treatments, and enable governance to ensure process changes remain sustainable completes the solution.

“The Huntsville Hospital study epitomizes our commitment to reducing sepsis morbidity and mortality and improving patient care worldwide,” said Arvind Subramanian, President and CEO, Clinical Solutions, Wolters Kluwer. “POC Advisor has demonstrated that comprehensive CDS technology has the power to drastically improve patient outcomes and clinician performance. Wolters Kluwer is proud of its continued success in CDS innovations that support clinicians with evidence-based knowledge and revolutionize patient care.”

Learn more about POC Advisor and Wolters Kluwer at booth #8103 during HIMSS15 in Chicago April 12-16 at the McCormick Place Convention Center.

About Wolters Kluwer
Wolters Kluwer is a global leader in professional information services. Professionals in the areas of legal, business, tax, accounting, finance, audit, risk, compliance and healthcare rely on Wolters Kluwer’s market leading information-enabled tools and software solutions to manage their business efficiently, deliver results to their clients, and succeed in an ever more dynamic world.

Wolters Kluwer reported 2014 annual revenues of €3.7 billion. The group serves customers in over 170 countries, and employs over 19,000 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands. Wolters Kluwer shares are listed on NYSE Euronext Amsterdam (WKL) and are included in the AEX and Euronext 100 indices. Wolters Kluwer has a sponsored Level 1 American Depositary Receipt program. The ADRs are traded on the over-the-counter market in the U.S. (WTKWY).

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