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Credit: CDC
A new study suggests that “practice makes perfect” when it comes to caring for patients with severe sepsis.
Researchers found that patients admitted to academic medical centers with a higher volume of severe sepsis patients had significantly lower mortality rates than patients treated at centers with lower volumes of sepsis patients.
And the superior outcomes did not come at a greater cost.
Allan J. Walkey, MD, of the Boston University School of Medicine in Massachusetts, and his colleagues reported these findings in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
The researchers noted that processes of care can influence outcomes in patients with severe sepsis. However, it hasn’t been clear whether a hospital’s level of experience in caring for patients with severe sepsis affects patient outcomes.
So Dr Walkey and his colleagues conducted a large, retrospective study to find out. The team analyzed data from academic hospitals across the US, provided by the University HealthSystem Consortium.
They identified 56,997 patients with severe sepsis who were admitted to 124 academic medical centers in 2011.
The patients’ median length of stay was 12.5 days, the median direct cost for each patient was $26,304, and the average hospital mortality was 25.6 ± 5.3%.
Hospitals caring for more sepsis patients had a 7% lower mortality rate than hospitals with lower volumes.
The high-volume medical centers (604-977 cases) had a 22.2% adjusted mortality rate, and the lower-volume hospitals (30-317) had a 29.2% adjusted mortality rate (P<0.01).
There was no significant difference in direct costs between the low-volume and high-volume centers (P=0.79).
“Given the lack of new drugs to treat severe sepsis, medical professionals must look at other ways to increase patient safety and positive outcomes, including the process of how we deliver care,” Dr Walkey said.
“Our study results demonstrate that hospitals with more experience caring for patients with severe sepsis were able to achieve better outcomes than hospitals with less experience with sepsis, possibly due to better processes of care for patients with sepsis.” 
Credit: CDC
A new study suggests that “practice makes perfect” when it comes to caring for patients with severe sepsis.
Researchers found that patients admitted to academic medical centers with a higher volume of severe sepsis patients had significantly lower mortality rates than patients treated at centers with lower volumes of sepsis patients.
And the superior outcomes did not come at a greater cost.
Allan J. Walkey, MD, of the Boston University School of Medicine in Massachusetts, and his colleagues reported these findings in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
The researchers noted that processes of care can influence outcomes in patients with severe sepsis. However, it hasn’t been clear whether a hospital’s level of experience in caring for patients with severe sepsis affects patient outcomes.
So Dr Walkey and his colleagues conducted a large, retrospective study to find out. The team analyzed data from academic hospitals across the US, provided by the University HealthSystem Consortium.
They identified 56,997 patients with severe sepsis who were admitted to 124 academic medical centers in 2011.
The patients’ median length of stay was 12.5 days, the median direct cost for each patient was $26,304, and the average hospital mortality was 25.6 ± 5.3%.
Hospitals caring for more sepsis patients had a 7% lower mortality rate than hospitals with lower volumes.
The high-volume medical centers (604-977 cases) had a 22.2% adjusted mortality rate, and the lower-volume hospitals (30-317) had a 29.2% adjusted mortality rate (P<0.01).
There was no significant difference in direct costs between the low-volume and high-volume centers (P=0.79).
“Given the lack of new drugs to treat severe sepsis, medical professionals must look at other ways to increase patient safety and positive outcomes, including the process of how we deliver care,” Dr Walkey said.
“Our study results demonstrate that hospitals with more experience caring for patients with severe sepsis were able to achieve better outcomes than hospitals with less experience with sepsis, possibly due to better processes of care for patients with sepsis.”
Credit: CDC
A new study suggests that “practice makes perfect” when it comes to caring for patients with severe sepsis.
Researchers found that patients admitted to academic medical centers with a higher volume of severe sepsis patients had significantly lower mortality rates than patients treated at centers with lower volumes of sepsis patients.
And the superior outcomes did not come at a greater cost.
Allan J. Walkey, MD, of the Boston University School of Medicine in Massachusetts, and his colleagues reported these findings in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
The researchers noted that processes of care can influence outcomes in patients with severe sepsis. However, it hasn’t been clear whether a hospital’s level of experience in caring for patients with severe sepsis affects patient outcomes.
So Dr Walkey and his colleagues conducted a large, retrospective study to find out. The team analyzed data from academic hospitals across the US, provided by the University HealthSystem Consortium.
They identified 56,997 patients with severe sepsis who were admitted to 124 academic medical centers in 2011.
The patients’ median length of stay was 12.5 days, the median direct cost for each patient was $26,304, and the average hospital mortality was 25.6 ± 5.3%.
Hospitals caring for more sepsis patients had a 7% lower mortality rate than hospitals with lower volumes.
The high-volume medical centers (604-977 cases) had a 22.2% adjusted mortality rate, and the lower-volume hospitals (30-317) had a 29.2% adjusted mortality rate (P<0.01).
There was no significant difference in direct costs between the low-volume and high-volume centers (P=0.79).
“Given the lack of new drugs to treat severe sepsis, medical professionals must look at other ways to increase patient safety and positive outcomes, including the process of how we deliver care,” Dr Walkey said.
“Our study results demonstrate that hospitals with more experience caring for patients with severe sepsis were able to achieve better outcomes than hospitals with less experience with sepsis, possibly due to better processes of care for patients with sepsis.”