The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is launching the Hospital sepsis program core elements to support all U.S. hospitals in ensuring effective teams and resources are in place to be able to quickly identify sepsis and save more lives. This new, critical resource is intended to help hospitals implement, monitor, and optimize sepsis programs and improve survival rates. CDC’s latest survey of 5,221 hospitals found 73% report having sepsis teams, but only half (55%) report that team leaders are provided with dedicated time to manage sepsis programs.
Sepsis is the body’s extreme response to an infection. It is a life-threatening condition that requires urgent medical care to prevent tissue damage, organ damage, and death. In a typical year, at least 1.7 million adults in America develop sepsis and at least 350,000 adults who develop sepsis die during their hospitalization or are moved into hospice care. Most adult patients with sepsis (87%) are brought to the hospital with an infection that is not getting better and almost any infection, including Covid-19, influenza, or RSV, can lead to sepsis.
The Sepsis core elements are intended to be a manager’s guide to organizing staff and identify the resources that will help bring sepsis rates down and survival rates up. Sepsis care is complex. The Sepsis core elements approach is an important step to help hospitals structure their sepsis programs to coordinate multiple departments and disciplines and effectively manage the multifaceted care needed. Based on CDC’s 2022 National healthcare safety network annual survey of hospitals, only half (55%) report that they integrate Antibiotic stewardship programs, for example, to monitor and review antibiotic and antifungal use in sepsis care. This presents an opportunity to improve a vital component of a patient’s successful recovery from sepsis.
Modeled after CDC’s Core elements of antibiotic stewardship, which has proven to be an impactful resource to protect patients from the harms caused by unnecessary antibiotic use and to combat antimicrobial resistance, the Sepsis core elements were created with the expectation that all hospitals, regardless of size and location, would benefit from this resource and incorporate the following elements into the foundation of a strong sepsis program.
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2023/s0824-sepsis-patients.html