North Platte, Neb.-based Great Plains Health implemented a new sepsis alert system Oct. 1, according to The North Platte Telegraph.
The new protocol is a collaborative effort with local emergency medical services teams. Emergency responders will alert the emergency department of a suspected case of sepsis before the patient arrives, according to James Smith, MD, emergency department medical director at Great Plains Health.
"We know that for every hour that we delay in the treatment of somebody who is septic, the mortality rate goes up by 4 percent," he told The North Platte Telegraph. "This early alert will drastically reduce the time to treatment, which often means the difference between life and death."
Sepsis kills someone every two minutes in the United States and causes more than 1.5 million hospital stays annually, according to the Sepsis Alliance.