Sepsis Case Studies

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Sepsis is a life-threatening response to infection responsible for over a million yearly admissions and mortality rates as high as 25 to 50 percent in the USA alone (VHQC, n. d.). People commonly believe sepsis is likely to develop during acute care stay; however, statistics show that 80% of sepsis cases generate outside of the hospital including nursing homes and other subacute care facilities (Bowerman, Cardillo, Heymann, 2012). In the fiscal year 2011, almost a quarter of all Medicare nursing home residents were transferred to hospitals due to sepsis accounting for 13.4% of all transfers and 3 billion in spending, making sepsis the most common and expensive transfer diagnosis (Levinson, 2013). High rates of sepsis in nursing homes present a health care paradox: despite the availability of licensed medical personnel responsible for identifying and treating infections, the health outcomes for this population remain low. To address sepsis epidemic in nursing homes Centers for Medicare and Medicaid created new quality improvement measure that evaluates facilities based on the percentage of residents who were re-hospitalized after a nursing home admission or had an outpatient ER …show more content…
The recommendation is for the Office of Licensure and Certification of Virginia Department of Health to review and consider adding sepsis prevention program as state licensing requirements for nursing homes. Sepsis is an extensive multifaceted topic; therefore this proposal will focus on sepsis-related education, surveillance programs and transfer protocols for nursing homes for the State of Virginia. The proposal will address the significance of sepsis as a healthcare issue, current trends and evidence of sepsis being an issue, suggestions to alleviate the problem, and possible evaluation