Wolters Kluwer Health, The Altos Group Partner to Develop Sepsis Mortality Reduction Program

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading global provider of information for healthcare professionals and students, announced today a strategic partnership with The Altos Group to advance development of an innovative sepsis mortality reduction program. Hospitals are currently being enrolled to serve as pilot sites in the program, which brings together mobile technology, actionable clinical content and clinical change management to enable early sepsis identification and intervention.

The Altos Group is a consulting firm that partners with healthcare institutions to implement change management programs that substantially improve patient outcomes. Headed by Julie A. Kliger, MPA, BSN, the firm’s methodology and services have proven particularly effective at impacting sepsis rates. In one case, which was profiled recently by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), a 54.5% reduction in average mortality rates was achieved within three years across nine California hospitals.

“Sepsis is the top preventable cause of death in hospitals. And while hospitals have been proactive in their efforts to reduce its devastating and often fatal consequences, sepsis rates remain unacceptably high because traditional approaches fail to address the human factors involved in early detection and proper treatment,” said Kliger. “By combining The Altos Group’s change management expertise with Wolters Kluwer Health’s advanced decision support technologies and superior clinical content, we are closing the gaps that have hampered hospitals’ efforts to intervene before sepsis becomes life-threatening.”

The sepsis mortality reduction program focuses on early detection and applying best practices to treating the septic patient. In addition to reducing overall patient mortality, costs and lengths of stay, the goal of the program is to identify and address the top healthcare-associated infections (HAI) that drive sepsis mortality. This will be accomplished through a three-pronged approach that couples mobile software with actionable content, driven by Wolters Kluwer Health’s trusted brands including UpToDate^®, Lexicomp^®, ProVation^® Order Sets, and Sentri7^®, supplemented by change management consulting services.

“A sepsis crisis is gripping the U.S. healthcare system, claiming 215,000 lives and burdening the system with $16.7 billion in unnecessary healthcare expenditures. Software and clinical content alone are not enough to change that. Sepsis can only be eliminated if we also pay attention to workflow and human factors,” said Linda R. Peitzman, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, Wolters Kluwer Health Clinical Solutions. “The Altos Group brings to our program the guidance and expertise required to build appropriate teams, develop an infrastructure and framework for organizational improvement, and align key stakeholders across a facility. By integrating all three elements, we can affect the change necessary to reduce the needless loss of life to sepsis.”

Hospitals interested in being considered as a pilot site for the sepsis mortality reduction program should contact Andy Strunk, Innovation Lab Program Director, at [phone] or [e-mail].

About Wolters Kluwer Health
Wolters Kluwer Health (Philadelphia, PA) is a leading global provider of information, business intelligence and point-of-care solutions for the healthcare industry. Serving more than 150 countries and territories worldwide, Wolters Kluwer Health’s customers include professionals, institutions and students in medicine, nursing, allied health and pharmacy. Major brands include traditional publishers of medical and drug reference tools, journals and textbooks, such as Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; and electronic information providers, such as Ovid^®, Medknow, UpToDate^®, Medi-Span^®, Facts & Comparisons^®, Pharmacy OneSource^®, Lexicomp^® and ProVation^® Medical.

Wolters Kluwer Health is part of Wolters Kluwer, a market-leading global information services company. Wolters Kluwer has 2011 annual revenues of €3.4 billion ($4.7 billion), employs approximately 19,000 people worldwide, and maintains operations in over 40 countries across Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and Latin America.