The Registry Partners Quality Team is excited to announce a new series of educational videos called: “Sepsis Chatter”.
Sepsis Chatter will consist of one 5-10 minute video presentation that is published monthly to address the challenging topics and new guidance related to Sepsis Core Measure abstraction.
Our video for the April Sepsis Chatter focuses on the presentation of severe sepsis met by clinical criteria and when to exclude an elevated heart rate as a SIRS indicator in the patient with documented Atrial Fibrillation. This presentation begins with a brief overview of the clinical criteria required to determine the onset of severe sepsis, then continues with a review of the current CMS Specifications Manual guidelines related to excluding clinical indicators that would otherwise be used to determine the onset of severe sepsis. In addition, three case examples and discussion will be presented:
- Provider documentation that does not meet the requirement to exclude the elevated heart rate as a SIRS indicator.
- Provider documentation that does meet the requirement to exclude the elevated heart rate as a SIRS indicator.
- Conflicting provider documentation that does not exclude the elevated heart rate as a SIRS indicator.
This presentation is based on the information included in the most current version of the Specifications Manual for National Hospital Inpatient Quality Measures Discharges from January 1 (Q1/22) through June 30, 2022 (2Q22).
Look for our May edition of “Sepsis Chatter”, where we will discuss the guidelines regarding Initial Lactate Collection/Result and Repeat Lactate Collection.