News: Hospitals might not be meeting sepsis quality improvement standards, study finds

Safety-net hospitals may not have adequate resources to comply with federal and state sepsis quality improvement standards required of acute care hospitals, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Critical Care .

Researchers analyzed data from 2,827 hospitals and found that the 703 safety-net hospitals (hospitals with a certain percentage of Medicaid and uninsured discharges in the top quartile within the state) performed worse in Medicare’s severe sepsis and septic shock early management bundle, known as SEP-1, JustCoding reported.

This association was most evident in hospitals not affiliated with health systems, in which the compliance difference between safety-net and non-safety-net hospitals was 6.8%, according to the study.

Responding to these policies requires considerable resources, including a financial investment that may disproportionately burden safety-net hospitals, authors noted. Initial data suggests that compliance with this measure is generally poor. On average, hospitals complete the bundle in only half of eligible patients, the study said.

Researchers concluded this poor compliance exacerbates disparities in healthcare relating to infection control. They suggested potential strategies to improve sepsis care in safety-net hospitals, including promoting collaboration among hospitals.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by JustCoding. Click here to read the study by the Journal of Critical Care.