Victorian Sepsis Program

About the project 

The Victorian Sepsis Program aims to improve the management of sepsis by supporting Victorian Health Services to implement consistent, evidenced based practice to ensure high quality care provision and reduction in sepsis-related harm.

Objectives

• Reducing sepsis related morbidity and mortality in Victoria
• Reducing variation in the management of patients with sepsis. 
• Realising efficiencies by reducing length of stay.  
• Improving consumer engagement in sepsis management. 

Background

Sepsis is a time-critical medical emergency that occurs when the body’s response to an infection damages its own tissues and organs leading to failure of multiple systems and death if not recognised and treated promptly.

Significant variation in practice related to sepsis recognition and effective timely intervention contributes to increased consumer mortality and morbidity. Incidence of sepsis is increasing and timely recognition and treatment is vital to improve patient outcomes. 

Solution design

The Victorian Sepsis Program is a statewide improvement program designed with an expert working group of consumers, multidisciplinary clinicians and safety and quality experts.  

The ultimate focus is on minimising variation in practice by aligning sepsis management in Victorian health services to the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) Sepsis Clinical Care Standard (2022). This includes establishing and revisiting key evidence-based improvements in:

• early recognition and time-critical management of sepsis
• health service education
• sepsis awareness
• partnership with consumers.

Project streams

Two adult project streams will run concurrently. Both streams will be involved in sharing resources and knowledge relating to sepsis improvement work with their region and across Victoria. 

Adult Sepsis Collaborative – Stream A

Teams in the Adult Sepsis Collaborative (Stream A) will work on a collaborative model with SCV. This will focus on:

• improving sepsis recognition 
• timely management for adults presenting to Victorian hospitals in 2025-2026 
• improvements in embedding an adult sepsis clinical pathway.

This intervention approach draws on the previous initiatives including the 'Think Sepsis. Act Fast' Collaborative (2017–18) and Sepsis Bundle Collaborative, which demonstrated a reduction in mortality and length of stay related to sepsis in Victoria. 

The Adult Sepsis Improvement Community – Stream B

The Adult Sepsis Improvement Community (Stream B) will work in partnership with SCV as part of a broader sepsis community. These services will have their own current or planned initiatives that improve patient outcomes related to sepsis.

How to get involved

Our Safer Together Program (STP) provides an opportunity for Victorian public health services to engage in sepsis improvement in a coordinated approach as part of their health service partnership (HSP). This will leverage existing work and shared learnings as part of a coordinated approach across the region. 

For more information on how to participate in future phases of this project, email the Deteriorating Patient Improvement Team at deterioratingpatientimprovement@safercare.vic.gov.au.

Project milestones

Participating services