The U.S. is cracking down on hospitals to improve sepsis care. A rule finalized in August by CMS and the Biden administration will give health systems until 2026 to comply with the new standards. In the meantime, researchers are pushing ahead with techniques and tools aimed at improving outcomes.
Four developments in sepsis care that have been achieved in 2023:
- A study published in September by Penn State researchers tested a technology designed to detect sepsis earlier in at-risk patients proved in trials that it is capable of achieving a patient survival rate of 95 percent when in use compared to other tools.
- In August, Our Lady of the Lake Health in Baton Rouge, La., deployed a technology to more rapidly detect signs of sepsis — specifically in less than 10 minutes. With the tool, patients who have checked into the ER are evaluated using the tool, and anyone who has a condition that the tool signals as putting them at a higher risk for septic infection, is prioritized and seen in that order, rather than the traditional order they come in.
- Improving a standard treatment for septic shock — increasing the patient's blood pressure — can be done safely using both vasopressors and continued IV fluid administration, according to research published in January by experts at Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
- The gut microbiome may play a larger role in regulating basal body temperature than previously thought — specifically in relation to infections like sepsis — and targeting it could help improve septic patient outcomes, according to research published in January by experts from the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor.
Despite the progress made in research and tools, sepsis care in the U.S. is still in need of stronger guidelines some say. Groups like the Sepsis Alliance have pushed for stronger guidelines around the deadly hospital infection for years.
"Some nations, including Switzerland and the United Kingdom, have implemented national sepsis strategies, but the United States has yet to do so," the group wrote in a Sept. 11 news release. "A National Sepsis Action Plan is urgently needed to guide work aimed at countering sepsis, saving lives, and reducing healthcare costs."