Advancing Quality (AQ) is a North West programme designed to identify and reduce unwarranted variation in the delivery of care across healthcare organisations. Driven by the needs of the participating organisations, the programme offers members a structured approach to embedding evidence based care, enabling the highest quality care to be provided to every patient, every time.
The AQ Sepsis programme relies on organisational commitment, executive support, clinical leadership and engagement from front line staff to deliver a collective approach to improving patient outcomes.
Sepsis is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. In the UK, the estimated in hospital mortality is 30%. There are more than 250,000 episodes of sepsis annually in the U2. According to the national Standardised Hospital Mortality Ratio (SHMI) for the year ending June 2018 there were almost 38,000 patients with a diagnosis of sepsis who died in hospital or within 30 days of discharge. About 6200 (~17%) of those were in the North West.
The early detection and treatment of sepsis has been highlighted as a major focus for improvement, NHS England produced a National Action Plan and a financial incentive system. The optimal diagnosis and treatment of people with sepsis has received significant international attention and we have seen considerable advances in pathobiology, management and epidemiology.
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