Efforts in California, Other Areas Aim To Reduce Sepsis Rates, Deaths
Sepsis kills more than 100,000 patients annually, but efforts in California and across the U.S. to combat the illness have made progress, the CHCF Center for Health Reporting/Orange County Register reports.
The California HealthCare Foundation publishes California Healthline.
Background
Nationally, more than one million people are hospitalized annually due to sepsis, and the condition kills about 150,000 such individuals each year.
In the last 10 years, the number of sepsis cases has tripled, and the number of related deaths has more than doubled.
Meanwhile, annual costs associated with sepsis surpass $20 billion.
Efforts To Combat Sepsis
In California, hospitals have joined several programs and campaigns to help reduce rates of sepsis.
For example, the Hospital Quality Institute, an affiliate of the California Hospital Association, has conducted sepsis simulations for 1,600 doctors and nurses from 90 hospitals in the state in the last three years to help address the issue.
Meanwhile, 49 California hospitals have joined the Patient Safety First initiative. Under the program, the hospitals have reduced their average sepsis fatality rates from 22.6% in 2009 to 16.6% in 2012.
In addition, a UC-San Francisco experiment enabled emergency department nurses in several Bay Area hospitals to order sepsis tests in place of doctors.
Nationally, efforts to combat sepsis include:
- Medicare reporting requirements beginning Oct. 1 that will require hospitals to follow a standard treatment for sepsis or face payment reductions; and
- A strategy developed by doctors for screening for and treating sepsis (Campbell, CHCF Center for Health Reporting/Orange County Register, 9/22).