By Ethan Covey
In the year since the release of the Hospital Sepsis Program Core Elements (Sepsis Core Elements) on Aug. 24, 2023, the CDC has seen modest initial progress in resourcing for hospital sepsis programs.
The findings come from a report focused on the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) Patient Safety Component Annual Survey. As of June 1, 2024, 5,254 U.S. hospitals had completed the survey and were included in the analysis, a 96% completion rate.
“CDC recently started asking about 5,300 U.S. hospitals enrolled in the NHSN about their hospital sepsis program practices,” Curtis Gill, a CDC spokesperson, told Infectious Disease Special Edition.
“The results of an initial set of questions was published with the release of the Sepsis Core Elements in August 2023, and starting in January 2024—just a few months later—we asked a larger set of questions relating to their sepsis programs during all of 2023, so this most recent survey represents practices both before and after the launch of the Sepsis Core Elements,” he added.
While limitations to the survey existed, a number of notable improvements were demonstrated.
- The percentage of hospitals with a sepsis committee increased from 73% to 78%. “[This means] 300 more hospitals have sepsis committees compared with the previous year,” Mr. Gill said.
- The percentage of hospitals reporting sufficient dedicated time for their sepsis leaders also increased from 55% to 59%, or 217 more hospitals. And the percentage of sepsis committees with antibiotic stewardship support increased from 55% to 66%, representing 629 more hospitals.
- Sixty-six percent of hospitals tracked progress toward achieving hospital sepsis goals, which ranged from 44% among hospitals with zero to 25 beds to 88% among hospitals with more than 500 beds. The usability or acceptability of sepsis tools was tracked by 45% of hospitals, and standardized processes for verbal handoff were reported by 32% of hospitals.
However, the survey responses also illustrated areas where improvements may be made.
“The 2023 survey data included many new questions that reflect the complete set of recommendations from the Sepsis Core Elements,” Mr. Gill said. “There are still many opportunities to strengthen hospital sepsis programs to optimize patient care. These areas include executive sponsorship, evaluating the usability of local sepsis tools, implementing processes to support sepsis recovery, improving education to certified nursing assistants and patient care technicians, implementing processes to support prompt antimicrobial administration, and improving access to key sepsis data.”
Implementing these practices, Mr. Gill said, will take leadership support and institutional knowledge.
“In our webinar series hosted by the American Medical Association Project Firstline, several hospitals and hospital systems described their own experiences in advocating for and securing the resources needed to boost their sepsis programs,” he added.
Surveys such as the one conducted by NHSN will be conducted annually to continue to provide data on sepsis program practices, and the priority areas for outreach will adjust to reflect areas of need. The Sepsis Core Elements will be updated in order to reflect findings from future surveys, and as new ideas to improve sepsis programs emerge.
