Trials and Triumphs from 20 Years of 'Slay Sepsis' at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital (CE Session)
Includes a Live Web Event on 09/24/2025 at 12:05 PM (PDT)
Description:
This session is part of Sepsis Alliance Summit 2025.
This session will provide an overview of the “Slay Sepsis” campaign, a sepsis quality-improvement program at Cottage Hospital that began in 2008. Attendees will gain insight into the program’s development, including its current multidisciplinary team structure and the strategic infrastructure changes shaping its future. The session will highlight key successes from the Joint Commission certification process and explore the initiatives and innovations that contributed to that achievement. Attendees will also hear about current projects, such as the development of predictive tools and order set optimization, designed to enhance patient care and operational efficiency. The presenter will also share a brief overview of related research work, past and present.
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this session, the learner should be able to:
- Describe the history of the Cottage Hospital sepsis program from its inception to its current structure;
- Identify key components and strategies that contributed to successful Joint Commission certification;
- Describe ongoing infrastructure and quality improvement changes, as well as current and future directions and research for improving sepsis care.
Target Audience:
Nurses, advanced practice providers, physicians, emergency responders, pharmacists, medical technologists, respiratory therapists, physical/occupational therapists, infection prevention specialists, data/quality specialists, and more.
Natalie Achamallah, MD, MA, MS, FCCP
Director of Critical Care Education for Internal Medicine Residency
Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital
Natalie Achamallah, MD, MA, MS, FCCP, is the Director of Critical Care Education for the Internal Medicine Residency at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, a Clinical Assistant Professor at USC Keck School of Medicine, and a practicing intensivist and pulmonologist. She joined the faculty in 2022.
After completing her undergraduate degree at UCLA, she spent two years coordinating clinical trials at the West Los Angeles VA. She returned to school to obtain her MA in Medical Humanities and Bioethics at Northwestern University before attending medical school at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland. She then completed her Internal Medicine residency at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.
Her Pulmonary and Critical Care fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles coincided with the height of the COVID pandemic.
At Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, she is the Director of the Sepsis Committee and serves on the CPR and Critical Care Committees. Dr. Achamallah remains active in research and quality improvement, including clinical trials of novel therapies for venous thromboembolism. Among her specific interests within medical education are the development of clinical intuition and decision-making skills. Outside of the hospital, her favorite activities are painting Santa Barbara sunsets and cooking for exceptionally large groups of people.