Children's Hospitals Today - Summer 2016 - 21

electronic health record trigger, screening tool or educational process," says Schade Willis. "The hands-on training has changed everything." treatment of patients to filter out those patients who don't need that early, broadened antibiotic because antibiotic stewardship is also really important." More care complications A new mindset While shortening the time to administer antibiotics is critical when treating a child with sepsis, experts say there is a balance to strike when deciding to administer them. "The other side is the antibiotic stewardship movement, which is to say that you shouldn't overuse antibiotics," Carcillo says. "That is coming from a fear of multiple drug-resistant organisms." While Wakefield warns that teams should not reflexively withhold antibiotics in the name of good stewardship. She adds: "You can't go blasting for every patient. It's important to balance early Pediatric sepsis experts also agree that this leading killer of hospitalized children needs to move from its long-held position as an afterthought to a top-of-mind concern for all children's hospitals. "We need to have a system that at least makes people ask the question, 'Could it be sepsis?" Wakefield says. "You may not want to run every test and give every child who has a fever an antibiotic, but you want to be able to ask the question and look at the child more carefully." With this new mindset must come the old adage, never assume. "Assuming that you're doing a good job is actually not a good assumption," says Melendez, whose institution delivers yearly reviews with blinded feedback on physician performance around sepsis. "My advice is measure, measure, measure-unless you begin to measure your personal processes and outcomes, you can't presume you're good at this. Because unfortunately, that's where you learn you're not." In the case of 12-year-old Rory Staunton, that advice could have made all the difference in the world. Megan McDonnell Busenbark is a writer and founder of Encore Communications, LLC, in New Fairfield, Connecticut. Send questions or comments to magazine@childrenshospitals.org. ™ pain... "Ultimately, the pressure is to improve performance. We wanted to benchmark ourselves nationally against facilities with a similar payer mix and demographics. The intent is to learn from and collaborate with the organizations that are considered best-in-class." ...point "We wouldn't be able to do it without MAP App." Jose Loza, CRCR Vice President, Children's Health System of Texas MAP App subscriber Less pain. More gain. MAP App-the online benchmarking tool for improving revenue cycle performance. Learn more at hfma.org/childrens CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL S TODAY Summer 2016 21 http://www.hfma.org/childrens

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