Amador County – Medical staffers at Sutter Amador Hospital in Jackson attended classes in a mobile training bus Monday in the hospital’s parking lot to learn techniques on inserting a monitoring stent to help battle septic shock in patients undergoing operations.

Doctors, nurses, various hospital “champions” and “hospitalists” (that is, doctors covering emergency departments) were among the staffers from Sutter Amador Hospital attending the classes.

Gary D. Zavora, publicist for Sutter Health, said Amador County doctors would receive the training from the mobile training unit called the SimSuite (SIM-SWEET), which parked outside Sutter Amador Hospital in the main lot. The object was to “train the hospital’s physicians on how to effectively and efficiently insert central lines,” which “are the best way to prevent infections and to treat sepsis.”

Zavora said last year, “Sutter Health Sacramento Sierra Region received a $3.5 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to combat sepsis in our hospitals – which includes Sutter Amador – and then share these best practices.”

Sutter Health, in its research, “found that one critical area in treating sepsis is to insert central lines,” Zavora said. “In hospitals, central lines are inserted by doctors, with nurses assisting. However, most physicians do it so infrequently that they aren’t confident or comfortable in doing it in an expedient, timely manner.”

He said the “SimSuite, funded by Sutter Health through the Moore grant, is traveling to all Sutter hospitals in the region and is holding training sessions for physicians so they are more efficient, comfortable and confident with the insertion of central lines.”

In the SimSuite, doctors use a mannequin in order to train on the equipment, which includes a new ultrasound unit, much like what is used by OBs to locate a baby in the womb. It “allows the doctors to make sure they are inserting the central line in the correct vein – in this case, the jugular.”

Zavora said “in the past, without the use of ultrasound, it was tougher to insert the line correctly and took more time. Now, with the ultrasound, the process is much quicker and more precise.”

Sutter Amador’s Physician Champions on Sepsis include Dr. Shawn Brady, and Registered Nurse Kim Diaz. Also attending were SAH Hospitalist physicians Drs. Adrian Oribello, Prabjit Singh, and Girmay Gebremedhin. SAH Emergency Department physicians attending were Drs. Brad Chew and Drew Hood.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.