Authored by: Laura Kanov, Senior Vice President, Product Strategy
When we were in the process of developing our model for predicting the onset of an inpatient sepsis event, I noticed a ton of exclusions. I thought for sure there must be some mistake and we went over the data again and again. But what we found were what I thought was an unprecedented number of sepsis cases present on admission. I was shocked at its prevalence!
In the hospital setting, I knew that sepsis accounted for 1 in 3 deaths[1], increased lengths of stay and increased costs[2]. But I was unaware how many patients were admitted with sepsis already brewing. According to research in Critical Care Medicine, in the United States, over 970,000 sepsis cases are admitted annually, and the numbers have been rising year over year[3]. That’s about 3% of all admission[4] and 60% of the 1.7 million cases reported by the CDC[5]. The Sepsis Alliance reports as many as 87% of sepsis cases originate in the community![6]
These data incited us to create our Community Acquired Sepsis Risk model for population health management to assist in identifying those at elevated risk for developing a sepsis requiring hospitalization or emergency care to mitigate that event.
What can you do? The CDC recommends some basic prevention strategies that include good hygiene, chronic condition management and watching for signs and symptoms that include:
- Increased heart rate
- Fever, chills
- Shortness of breath
- Clammy or sweaty skin
- Confusion or disorientation
- Pain or discomfort
If you have an infection that is not getting better and/or getting worse – seek attention! Do not wait.
[1] https://www.cdc.gov/sepsis/datareports/index.html
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30048332
[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6250243/#R1
[4] https://www.aha.org/statistics/fast-facts-us-hospitals
[5] https://www.cdc.gov/sepsis/datareports/index.html
[6] file:///C:/Users/Laura/Downloads/Sepsis-Fact-Sheet-2018.pdf