Sepsis has both a human and financial cost

Of all hospital deaths nationally, as many as 52% were among patients diagnosed with sepsis.

“The results of our study suggest that improved care for sepsis patients of all severity levels and in all hospital settings could result in many future lives saved.”

Hospital Deaths in Patients With Sepsis From 2 Independent Cohorts – JAMA. 2014;312(1):90-92.

The impact of sepsis

More than one million cases of septicemia are reported in the United States each year. Costs of septicemia treatment are high, with total hospital costs estimated to be more than $24 billion in 2007. An estimated 25 to 50 percent of patients succumb to this condition, making septicemia the tenth leading cause of death in the United States.

Trends in Septicemia Hospitalizations and Re-admissions in Selected HCUP States, 2005 and 2010. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, STATISTICAL BRIEF #161, September 2013

 

Sepsis has both a human and financial cost

“According to a recent study, Clostridium difficile caused almost half a million infections among patients in the United States in a single year, with attributable costs in excess of $US1 billion per year “.

Burden of Clostridium difficile Infection in the United States. N Engl J Med 2015; 372:825-834 Feb, 2015

Impact of electronic surveillance

The use of electronic surveillance systems for healthcare associated infections (HAIs) is growing in acute care settings. De Bruin et al in their systematic review of published literature evaluating electronic HAI surveillance systems, found that electronic surveillance achieves equal or better sensitivity than manual surveillance and found several studies reporting time savings of 60–99.9% for hospital staff.

Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association 14 January 2014

The goal

IPSNP has deployed its Hydra Hospital Surveillance system in a pilot at a leading US tertiary medical centre. The purpose is to achieve targeted early intervention in cases at risk of sepsis facilitated by real time electronic surveillance. The technology operates by checking patient data for multitude HAI diagnostic elements in hospital databases/electronic health records. Retrospective case analyses show significant early Sepsis detection potential.

First stage results

The results for specificity and sensitivity achieved at the end of this first stage in the deployment pilot compare well with those reviewed by De Bruin et al.

Culture of excellence

Clinicians involved in the pilot have spoken enthusiastically about the user interface. The diagrammatic representation of the query under development, framed using terminology that is easy to follow, has intensified communication and collaboration within the hospital team. “Everyone is involved is trying to work our how to provide speedier identification and response to sepsis”.

A clear business case

The business case for our technology is clear:

  • Patients are less likely to be discharged and then subjected to a costly readmission
  • Clinical time is preserved and better targeted, supporting 24/7 healthcare delivery
  • The productivity of clinical data analysts is enhanced with one Hydra trained analyst able to do far more
  • Hydra frees the organisation legacy data analysis tools and from costly dependence on vendors for development of new or modified queries