#KissSepsisGoodBye

High temp, racing heart, out of breath, cold and clammy, kankles...what do they have in common.  These are some of the signs of Sepsis.

Elderberry was asked to facilitate 'active research' during the STARForUM monthly community meeting at St. Mary Mercy Hospital.  STARForUM is "Safe Transition of All Residents For yoU and Me" – a grassroots organization with primary goal of improving transitions of care between senior facilities and the Emergency Department (ED) in both directions.

Our process engages community in an energizing way to co-create, with members of a community, company or organization, transformative outcomes that bring these closer to their goals, identify opportunities or create innovations. 

We were asked by Michelle, the Director of the Senior ER at St. Mary Mercy, to get the STARForUM community excited and inspire their creativity to identify ideas that will tackle Sepsis.  Sepsis, as we learned, is more common than heart attacks, and claims more lives than any cancer.  Yet less than half of Americans have heard of it, prevention can be as simple as washing hands and early recognition is critical to treatment.

In our process we use energizing and creative activities to harness the excitement of the community to generate unique ideas.  For the STARForUM we used an activity called 'How To Draw Toast?'.  This is a great activty to harness the power of community developed by Tom Wujec and shared here in his TEDx talk.

The patterns that emerged:

1. There are many faces of Sepsis
2. Prevention is just as critical as recognition (could be as simple as washing hands and saying your ABCs)
3. There were a number of creative ways to build awareness that are in the spirit of the STARForUM 

The next step is choosing a way that best fits the spirit of the community.  The launching pad has been set....now its time to #KissSepsisGoodBye!

Stay tuned for the final outcome!