Save lives and reduce suffering by improving sepsis awareness and care.
Save lives and reduce suffering by improving sepsis awareness and care.
A world in which no one is harmed by sepsis.
Sepsis Alliance is committed to fostering equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in our work and in the sepsis care community.
Sepsis is the body’s overwhelming and life-threatening response to infection which can lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death.
Equity: We commit to working actively to challenge and respond to bias, racism, and discrimination in sepsis care, in health education, and in support of those impacted by sepsis.
Diversity: We commit to increasing diversity, which is expressed in many forms, including race and ethnicity, gender and gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, language, culture, national origin, religious commitments, age, (dis)ability status, and life experiences, in all areas of our organization.
Inclusion: We commit to working to ensure that Sepsis Alliance is an organization that welcomes differences, and all individuals feel valued, heard, and supported.
We recognize that historical and societal systems and community resource disparities create stark healthcare gaps, including in sepsis care. For example, studies show staggering racial and ethnic disparities in sepsis awareness, as well as incidence, care and outcomes:
As part of the larger healthcare sector, Sepsis Alliance will work diligently to address these disparities and health inequities. Ensuring equitable sepsis care for those who have been historically marginalized, including BIPOC individuals (individuals who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color) and other members of racial and ethnic minoritized groups aligns with our mission to reduce harm caused by sepsis through advocacy, education, and public awareness.
As such, we commit to fostering equity, diversity, and inclusion in our educational offerings (for the public and for healthcare providers), in our advocacy initiatives, and in our organizational structure. We commit to striving to be an EDI leader in the healthcare sector and to using our organizational voice to bolster equity, diversity, and inclusion across the continuum of sepsis care.
Below find Sepsis Alliance’s EDI plan:
1. Expand public education and provider training in service of closing racial and ethnic gaps in sepsis awareness and addressing inequities in sepsis care, and create support resources for all those impacted by sepsis:
2. Pursue advocacy initiatives that further EDI goals and strive to be an EDI leader in the healthcare sector:
3. Advance diversity and inclusion within Sepsis Alliance to better reflect the communities we serve, and better support our team and constituents:
Learn more about disparities in sepsis care in the Sepsis and Equity Fact Sheet.
[i] Kempker, J. A., Kramer, M. R., Waller, L. A. and Martin, G. S. (2018) Risk Factors for Septicemia Deaths and Disparities in a Longitudinal US Cohort, Open Forum Infectious Diseases,5(12), ofy305.
[ii] Mayr, F. B., Yende, S., Linde-Zwirble, W. T., Peck-Palmer, O. M., Barnato, A. E., Weissfeld,L. A. and Angus, D. C. (2010) Infection rate and acute organ dysfunction risk as explanations for racial differences in severe sepsis, JAMA,303(24), 2495-503.
[iii] Thavamani, A., Umapathi, K. K., Dhanpalreddy, H., Khatana, J., Chotikanatis, K., Allareddy, V. and Roy, A. (2020) Epidemiology, Clinical and Microbiologic Profile and Risk Factors for Inpatient Mortality in Pediatric Severe Sepsis in the United States From 2003 to 2014: A Large Population Analysis, Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal,39(9), 781-788.
[iv] Jones, J. M., Fingar, K. R., Miller, M. A., Coffey, R., Barrett, M., Flottemesch, T., Heslin, K. C., Gray, D. T. and Moy, E.(2017) Racial Disparities in Sepsis-Related In-Hospital Mortality: Using a Broad Case Capture Method and Multivariate Controls for Clinical and Hospital Variables, 2004-2013, Critical Care Medicine,45(12), e1209-e1217.
[v] Disparities. (2019, October) https://www.ihs.gov/newsroom/factsheets/disparities/
[vi] Raman, J., Johnson, T. J., Hayes, K. and Balamuth, F. (2019) Racial Differences in Sepsis Recognition in the Emergency Department, Pediatrics, 144(4), e20190348.
[vii] Sepsis Alliance Awareness Survey. (2020) https://www.sepsis.org/2020-sepsis-awareness-survey/