Hospitals trying for better diagnosis of sepsis in kids
The Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA) is leading a consortium of 55 hospitals in developing tactics for early diagnosis of sepsis. The association is focusing on pediatric patients because identifying and treating sepsis can be especially challenging with that population. (More on the association’s sepsis effort is available online at http://www.gnyha.org/6653/Default.aspx. Registration is required but free.)
Sepsis is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, the GNYHA reports. With an estimated 750,000 cases annually and a nearly 40% mortality rate, severe sepsis is also one of the most common causes, and possibly the number one cause, of death in hospital critical care units. In addition to its high mortality rate, severe sepsis also bears a huge price tag, with a national estimate at $16.7 billion annually.
To address this challenge in the New York metropolitan area, GNYHA launched a new initiative in 2010 focused on the early identification and treatment of sepsis at hospitals. The initiative is STOP Sepsis Collaborative, with STOP being an acronym for Strengthening Treatment and Outcomes for Patients. The central goal of the initiative is to reduce mortality in patients with severe sepsis and septic shock by implementing a protocol-based approach to case identification and rapid treatment. This effort will entail improving communication and patient flow between the emergency department and intensive care units (ICUs).
Critical care and emergency medicine leaders from throughout the region spent months developing model protocols, checklists, and data collection tools for the initiative. Fifty-six hospitals from throughout the region are participating in the STOP Sepsis Collaborative.
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