NORTH DAKOTA (KXNET) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched the Hospital Sepsis Program Core Elements for all hospitals so that teams and resources are in place to identify sepsis and save more lives.
According to a news release, this new resource is supposed to help hospitals implement, monitor, and optimize sepsis programs and improve survival rates.
“Sepsis is taking too many lives. One in three people who dies in a hospital has sepsis during that hospitalization. Rapid diagnosis and immediate appropriate treatment, including antibiotics, are essential to saving lives, yet the challenges of awareness about and recognition of sepsis are enormous. That’s why CDC is calling on all U.S. hospitals to have a sepsis program and raise the bar on sepsis care by incorporating these seven core elements,” said CDC Director Mandy Cohen, M.D., M.P.H. “Seven elements provide an organizational framework and key concepts that guide hospitals as they work to improve early recognition and treatment to save lives.”
Sepsis is an extreme response to an infection in the body, it’s life-threatening and requires urgent medical care to prevent tissue and organ damage, and even death.
Most adults with sepsis are brought to the hospital with an infection that’s not getting better, and almost any infection can lead to sepsis, including COVID-19, influenza, or RSV.
The Sepsis Core Elements are supposed to be a guide to organizing staff and identifying resources that will bring rates down and survival rates up.
These core elements were created with the expectation that all hospitals would benefit from the resources and incorporate them into the foundation of a strong program.
The core elements are:
- Leadership commitment is dedicating the necessary human, financial, and information technology resources.
- Accountability by appointing a leader that’s responsible for outcomes and setting concrete goals.
- Multi-professional expertise is engaging key partners throughout the organization.
- The action of implementing structures and processes to improve the identification, management, and recovery of sepsis.
- Tracking sepsis epidemiology, outcomes, progress toward goals, and the impact of initiatives.
- Reporting by providing usable information on sepsis treatment and outcomes to partners.
- Education to healthcare professionals during onboarding and annually.
“CDC’s Hospital Sepsis Program Core Elements are a guide for instructing sepsis programs that put your healthcare providers in the best position to rapidly identify and provide effective care for all types of patients with sepsis,” said CDC Medical Advisor Raymund Dantes, M.D., M.P.H. “The seven elements complement clinical guidelines by describing the leadership, expertise, tracking, education, and other elements that can be implemented in a wide variety of hospitals to improve the quality of sepsis care.”
This launch goes along with Sepsis Awareness Month, and during the month of September, the CDC will provide life-saving educational information to professionals, patients, families, and caregivers about the importance of preventing infections.
To learn more about sepsis and how to prevent infections, you can visit this website.
