What You Need to Know About Sepsis

Submitted by eapullin on

Each year, approximately 49 million people worldwide are affected by sepsis. Yet, an estimated 35% of U.S. adults have never heard of it.

Whether you work directly with patients or not, knowing the risks and spotting the signs of sepsis are critical to providing quality patient care—and to saving lives!

September is Sepsis Awareness month; it's the perfect time to learn how you can help to keep our patients safe from sepsis. 

1. What is sepsis?
Sepsis is the body’s overwhelming and life-threatening response to infection, which can lead to tissue damage, organ failure and death. It's also the leading cause of death in U.S. hospitals, including ours. So, fighting sepsis is one of our biggest challenges to keep our patients safe and we need everybody’s help!

2. What causes sepsis?
When germs get into a person's body, it can cause an infection. Anyone can be at risk for sepsis if that infection isn't stopped. And anyone can get an infection. Almost any infection, including COVID-19, can lead to sepsis, but bacterial infections cause most cases of sepsis.

3. Who can get sepsis?
You can't spread sepsis to other people. However, an infection can lead to sepsis, and you can spread some infections to other people.

While sepsis can impact anyone, including the sick, the well and people of all ages, some groups are more likely to be affected. These include adults 65 or older, children younger than one, sepsis survivors and people with weakened immune systems, chronic medical conditions (i.e., diabetes, lung disease, cancer and kidney disease), or recent severe illness or hospitalization.

Some populations are also more at risk. Black individuals bear nearly twice the burden of sepsis deaths, relative to the size of the Black population, as compared to white individuals.

4. What are the symptoms of sepsis?
When it comes to sepsis, remember It's About TIME™:

T–Temperature: higher or lower than normal
I – Infection: may have signs or symptoms of infection
M – Mental Decline: confused, sleepy, difficult to rouse
E – Extremely ill: severe pain, discomfort, shortness of breath

For every hour treatment is delayed, the risk of death increases by 4% - 9%. As many as 80% of sepsis deaths could be prevented with rapid diagnosis and treatment.

5. How can I reduce my risk of getting sepsis?

  • Prevent infections that can lead to sepsis by taking good care of chronic conditions and getting your recommended vaccines.
  • Practice good hygiene by washing your hands and keeping cuts clean and covered until healed.
  • Know the signs and symptoms. A patient with sepsis might have one or more of the above symptoms; a medical assessment by a health care professional is needed to confirm sepsis.
  • Act fast. Sepsis is a medical emergency.

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We’re spreading the word about sepsis and the importance of recognizing it early. The sooner symptoms are spotted, the earlier treatment begins and the risk of death decreases. Here’s how we’re raising awareness:

  • Rounding at all the hospitals, with focused rounding in Emergency Departments where 80-90% of sepsis patients are admitted. 
  • Sharing information and sepsis giveaways as visual reminders with staff when rounding and visiting each hospital
  • Displaying sepsis information in hospital cafeterias, breakrooms and staff areas

We are also learning more about how to care for our sepsis patients through these efforts:

  • Distributing nursing- and physician-specific information on screening and treating patients who progress to sepsis during their hospitalization
  • Developing a septic shock alert process for CNRV ED that gets patients with septic shock treated and placed in the ICU faster for better outcomes. This will be similar to the CRMH ED process, but tailored to CNRV's needs.  
  • Lowering sepsis mortality at CRMH by improving the time it takes to administer antibiotics, provide lactate results for patients with positive screens and get sepsis patients to an ED room; ED and inpatient sepsis workflows are also being integrated.
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Sepsis is the leading cause of mortality in U.S. hospitals.

Fighting sepsis is one of our health system's greatest challenges—about half of mortality is related to sepsis.

Most sepsis patients (80-90%) are admitted through the Emergency Department.

It's important to know about sepsis, its signs and symptoms, so you can recognize it sooner; early detection saves lives!