Sepsis Alliance Joins Project Designed to Improve Early Identification and Treatment of Sepsis

Sepsis Alliance, the nation’s leading sepsis advocacy organization, has announced its participation in a new two-year project aimed at improving early identification and management of sepsis among community-based providers. In addition to working with home health staff, nursing home personnel, emergency medical service responders, physician practices and hospitals, the project aims to raise awareness among the general public about the signs of sepsis. The project is funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS), through a special grant awarded to IPRO, leader of the Atlantic Quality Innovation Network (AQIN).

Sepsis Alliance will partner with IPRO and The Carolinas Center for Medical Excellence (CCME, a member of AQIN), along with the Home Care Association of New York State and the Medical University of South Carolina, to conduct outreach to community-based providers and implement public awareness programs in South Carolina and New York.

“Sepsis Alliance is proud to be part of this first-of-its-kind initiative that will develop new resources and tools to help raise awareness of sepsis as a medical emergency across the public and health provider communities,” Tom Heymann, Sepsis Alliance Executive Director, said. “Beating sepsis, currently the third leading cause of death in the United States, will take partnerships across public, private, and government organizations. This is just the beginning of many synergistic efforts to come.”

Nationwide, sepsis is Medicare’s single most expensive condition, accounting for nearly 7% of all Medicare payments annually. New York is aggressively tracking the disease, noting that sepsis is the top driver of 30-day readmissions to hospitals (21.3%). The sepsis in-hospital Medicare mortality rate in New York is 17%, and 14% in South Carolina, four times the mortality rate from all causes. New York is the first state in the nation to require that every hospital implement state-of-the-art sepsis recognition and treatment protocols. The AQIN project targets the Albany and Syracuse Hospital Referral Regions (HRR) of New York, as well as the Charleston region of South Carolina.

“We know that between 15% and 30% of sepsis patients die from these medical emergencies,” IPRO Chief Medical Officer Clare Bradley, MD, MPH, added. “At the same time, we also know that sepsis is among the most under-recognized and misunderstood conditions among providers and the general public. The AQIN project aims to improve care but also to raise awareness, with the overall goal of reducing inpatient admissions, mortality, hospital length-of-stay and hospital readmissions.”

About Sepsis Alliance

Sepsis Alliance is the leading nonprofit patient advocacy organization in North America promoting awareness of sepsis. Sepsis Alliance’s mission is to save lives by raising awareness of sepsis as a medical emergency. The organization hosts national and community events, distributes educational information, and promotes training and education of sepsis and its devastating effects. Sepsis Alliance also provides support by giving patients and family members information about sepsis and post sepsis syndrome, as well as a community forum to share their experiences. Sepsis Alliance, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, is a GuideStar Gold Rated Charity. For more information, please visit https://www.sepsis.org.