Reducing Sepsis Mortality
Sepsis is the leading cause of death in hospitalized patients, claiming 220,000 American lives annually.
In June 2012, the Center for Transforming Healthcare launched its eighth project which aims to reduce sepsis mortality. Sepsis is the body’s life-threatening inflammatory response to an infection. The leading cause of death in hospitalized patients, sepsis has a mortality rate estimated between 25-50 percent. Every year, 750,000 Americans are diagnosed with sepsis and of those, 220,000 die. In addition, sepsis is the most expensive disease to treat in the hospital, costing approximately $17 billion dollars annually. Early detection and appropriate treatment of sepsis can decrease mortality, improve patient outcomes and decrease the length of stay in hospitals.
Sepsis mortality can be reduced, even with scarce resources, with early detection and the rapid initiation of appropriate treatment. However, there are multiple barriers to consistent, successful implementation of treatment. This project will work to address those barriers. The five leading hospitals and health centers participating in this project will work with the Center to identify the root causes of barriers to identifying and treating sepsis, and find solutions that are unique to their organization’s specific causes. These solutions will be tested and validated, and then spread to other organizations.