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News
Hospital-acquired sepsis is more common — and more preventable — than current tracking systems suggest. A new study found that 79% of hospital-onset sepsis cases stem from infections, with pneumonia in non-ventilated patients being the biggest culprit. Alarmingly, only 13% of these cases are captured by existing infection surveillance programs, and about 1 in 3 evaluated cases were deemed potentially preventable.
Hospital-onset sepsis is slipping through the cracks of current healthcare surveillance — and patients are paying the price. A retrospective study published in JAMA Network Open reviewed 250 hospital-onset sepsis cases across nine acute care hospitals and found that 79% were tied to infections. The biggest driver? Nonventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia (NV-HAP), which accounted for 44% of infection-related cases — a condition that isn't even captured by most standard hospital reporting systems.
What's more troubling is how much of this harm could be avoided. Of 100 infection-related cases assessed for preventability, 31% were flagged as potentially preventable. The two most common care gaps were failing to adequately treat an already-identified infection before it escalated to sepsis, and failing to prevent NV-HAP in the first place.
By the Numbers:
Why it matters: Current hospital infection surveillance programs are missing the vast majority of hospital-onset sepsis cases, leaving a major blind spot in patient safety. Expanding surveillance to include hospital-onset sepsis could unlock new opportunities for quality improvement and help prevent serious — sometimes fatal — complications of hospitalization.
