Tuscany Region Fights Against Sepsis

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GRC

On July 10th, Tuscany Region approved a detailed 3-year plan to fight sepsis. During the press conference, Healthcare Counselor Stefania Saccardi said:

“Sepsis is one of the most dangerous global threats for the health of our citizens. We are here today not only to raise the level of awareness of public opinion but to launch a plan for reversing the increase in the numbers of deaths from sepsis”.

The plan of Tuscany Region involves all the relevant stakeholders from patients to general practitioners, emergency services and hospital departments. The plan is based on the World Sepsis Declaration by the Global Sepsis Alliance and the WHA Resolution. It defines six lines of interventions:

  1. Spotting suspect of sepsis across the health care system by raising awareness and improving clinical practice
  2. Improving diagnosis and treatment of sepsis in every heath care setting
  3. Reducing delays of in delivering appropriate care
  4. Building an integrated system for monitoring and surveillance
  5. Creating an interplay between diagnostic and therapeutic stewardship
  6. Improve the access to microbiological services

8,000 cases of sepsis are registered in Tuscany every year, with a mortality of 36 %. Maria Teresa Mechi, Division Director for the regional program against sepsis, said: “This plan is an important addition to our ongoing work which aims at reducing antimicrobial resistance and the incidence of healthcare associated infections”.

“If it is caught early” - said Riccardo Tartaglia, Chief Director of the GRC Patient Safety Center - “antibiotics can control the infection. If not, there is little doctors can do. Yet awareness of the condition is poor, meaning it is often mistaken for milder conditions; that’s why sepsis is one of the main challenges that our healthcare services are facing”.

The GRC Patient Safety Center and Regional Healthcare Agency (ARS) will carry out the plan together with an ad-hoc steering committee drawing on the endeavors and results achieved so far. Tuscany is the first regional healthcare service in Italy committing to win the fight against sepsis. The common hope is that others will follow this example.

Marvin Zick