Meet Kristen Buck
2019 Erin’s Campaign for Kids Nursing Award Winner: Sepsis Coordinator Category
The 2019 Erin’s Campaign for Kids Award in the category of Sepsis Coordinator was awarded to Kristen Buck, Lead Sepsis Improvement Specialist at Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, MI.
Kristen helped facilitate the implementation of the ED and inpatient Code Sepsis recognition and response process for two large acute care hospitals. The implementation of Code Sepsis resulted in a reduction of severe sepsis and septic shock mortality from 26.8% to 20.29% in just 12 months. “This reflects an estimated 118 lives saved,” Kristen wrote in her application. She is currently working on spreading the use of ED and inpatient Code Sepsis work to the health system’s 8 regional hospitals.
Kristen explained that she has a multi-faceted role in her work as it relates to sepsis. She serves as a clinical lead, partnering with the sepsis lead team to set timelines, benchmarks and goals, prioritize improvement efforts, and more. As a process improvement engineer, some of her work involves planning and facilitating process improvement events to drive sepsis improvement work. She is also a staff and patient advocate, and data abstractor. Reviewing the charts has had a significant impact on improving care. “The inpatient code sepsis process has been in place for four weeks, and each week performance has improved, 3-hour compliance has increased from 17% to 100% and 6-hour compliance has increased from 0% to 100%,” she wrote.
“I was humbled and honored when I learned I had been selected for the Erin’s Campaign for Kids Sepsis Coordinator Award. My work really is the work of an amazing team of dedicated health professionals. Without them, this wouldn’t be possible. This award represents all of the hard work the Spectrum Health Sepsis Team has done to improve patient outcomes and save lives. I am excited to continue the work and keep making a positive impact on sepsis outcomes,” Kristen said.
Kristen says she has two options that she might choose from to use her award: to defray travel and conference expenses or for educational material to increase community awareness of sepsis. Attending conferences would provide her with more knowledge and resources to continue her work, but educational material would help the community with something tangible. Whichever way she uses the funds, Kristen says that the money is best used to enhance knowledge, which in turn would improve recognition and facilitate more timely treatment.
To meet the rest of the nursing award recipients, click here.
