Hospitals

Researchers map out “sepsis hotspots” to better understand hospital acquired infections

There’s nothing quite like a map to give you a better sense of proportion and […]

There’s nothing quite like a map to give you a better sense of proportion and to help understand the scope of a disease. That’s the approach one group of researchers has taken to study infections with a focus on severe sepsis, which can be especially problematic in hospitals. Now, a group of researchers from University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine have mapped out sepsis infection-related deaths across the US and have identified hotspots of this deadly infection and many others.

In addition to severe sepsis, they have also mapped infection hotspots for more than 25 different types of infection such as measles, whooping cough, pneumonia and salmonella.

Sepsis is the 10th leading cause of death in the US — there are 750,000 cases of the infection each year resulting in 300,000 deaths.

Researchers used ICD-10 codes to identify primary cause of death codes for infection and severe sepsis for 2010. They identified four major hotspots in the US, two of them in the Mid-Atlantic. Two regions in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states had three times the national mean of infection-related deaths and two regions of the South and Mid-Atlantic states had four times the national death rate from severe sepsis. On the other hand, the research has also revealed parts of the country that had disproportionately low incidences of the infection, particularly in the Mountain states.

One of the things that caught the eye of researchers in mapping the hotspots were facilities that had lower incidence rates within geographic hotspots. The thinking is that best practices from those institutions could be used to improve education and cut down on infections at other facilities in the regions.

Dr. David Gaieski, an associate professor of Emergency Medicine and Brendan Carr, an assistant professor of emergency medicine, authored the study and presented the findings this week at the Society for Emergency Medicine in Atlanta. “…While our understanding of the causes of infection-related death rates has improved, we are still struggling to prevent these diseases and identify individuals who are most susceptible,” said Gaieski. “We need to be able to pinpoint the geographic distribution of infection-related death rates in order to further study how and why these infections are happening in these areas and the best methods to prevent these deaths.”

Hospital acquired infections kill more than 1 million people each year and cost upwards of $17 billion, according to the research. In an effort to reduce infections, entrepreneurs and diagnostic developers have devised wide arranging approaches  from advanced handwashing adherence technology to air filtration systems to diagnostics that identify infections like sepsis early enough to take action.

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