Forging a Path for Sepsis Solutions in 2024
Sepsis is a formidable adversary lurking within the healthcare field, presents a plethora of challenges that extend beyond just the individual but also to the hospitals housing the patients. The deadly condition is triggered by the body’s overwhelming response to infection. The disease comes fast and often undetected, forcing hospitals to spend lots of effort and money to attempt to remain diligent. New sepsis solutions have made it easier to predict the illness, and these new technologies are helping change the landscape and drive CMS sepsis bundle compliance. New regulations hold hospitals to higher standards and expectations when it comes to chronic killers like sepsis.
Detection is a large challenge that both providers and sepsis solutions face. The high fever and difficulty breathing can be related to several different illnesses, and with the rapid progression of sepsis, it can present a tall task for the patient. Hospitals struggle with their own issues regarding disease. Early identification is crucial, but as mentioned previously, misdiagnosis can become an issue with symptoms easily related to other issues. When it is identified, the race against time is an uphill battle because the appropriate sepsis treatment requires is complex and dependent on a patient’s condition. This complexity requires a multidisciplinary approach—requiring collaboration between medical professionals that can often only be achieved through well engineered sepsis solutions that help automate some of the delivery of care without increased burden on physicians and nurses.
How is the U.S. working with healthcare professionals to help create sepsis solutions?
Some new developments in sepsis solutions are associated with the updated regulations by the FDA and the Biden administration. The past few years have brought a lot of clarity for sepsis solutions and their development through the updated FDA regulations. On September 28th, 2022, the FDA updated its language to clarify that software used to detect or diagnose emergency or critical illnesses such as sepsis does not meet the exclusion Criteria 3 and must be regulated as an FDA Class II medical device. Roughly a year later, in August of 2023, the CDC responded to the poor sepsis performance by creating a program named the Hospital Sepsis Program Core Elements, designed to support all U.S. hospitals in ensuring effective teams and resources are in place to be able to identify sepsis and save more lives quickly.
The goal for these developments in regulation is simple, to find sepsis solutions that work and keep patients safe. The Biden administration created specific benchmarks for sepsis care, and beginning this fall, hospitals will be at risk of losing funding if they do not meet the set benchmarks. This holds hospitals accountable for their actions and creates a strong foundation for sepsis solutions in U.S. hospitals. The CMS Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) will penalize a 1% reduction of Medicare Payments for the bottom quartile, which is set to go into effect with the 2024 performance period.
Why do sepsis solutions specifically need more attention?
There are multiple reasons why finding effective sepsis solutions is so vital to hospitals, besides the obvious, which is saving lives. Sepsis cost per stay is double the average cost per stay in comparison to all of the other conditions, making bundle compliance and reductions in a patient length of stay critical.
The lack of effective detection algorithms at the unit level reduces our ability to drive early or timely intervention for sepsis care improvement. Early detection is vital as sepsis moves fast and being able to see it early can help a vast amount when caring for a patient. Additionally, the lack of effective sepsis solutions that also drive the care delivery should be just as big of a driver for hospitals as detection is. Delivery of care is where most hospitals fail at meeting the CMNS bundle element requirements of CMS.
There are few FDA Approved solutions that accurately automate communication of potential sepsis and changes in a patient’s clinical condition that require additional treatment elements. This struggle creates a plethora of other issues, such as monitoring patients beyond sepsis and driving bundles of care for other specific conditions after notifications and confirmation. Today, most sepsis solutions don not have a way to notify physicians or nurses when a bundle element timeline is about to expire and no way to escalate if notifications are not acted upon.
Closing
In closing, there is improvement in some sepsis solutions but still much to be done, especially with EHRs. 2024 will drive new and much higher expectations for sepsis delivery in hospitals. Innovative technologies, government regulations, and monitoring will help hospitals be more prepared for sepsis incidents as well as managing patient care even after they have been released. Many issues, including accurately automating communication of sepsis detection and delivery of care are challenges that must be dealt with through well-engineered sepsis solutions in 2024. Sepsis is a quiet growing giant and, if left unleashed becomes a serious problem; however, with the help of growing technology, regulation, and awareness, the ideal sepsis solution is no longer make believe.
Learn More
Ambient Clinical Analytics has developed an FDA Class II cleared sepsis solution called Sepsis DART, which assists hospitals with sepsis notification, timely delivery and management of treatment, and reporting. Sepsis DART™ is a remote and bedside patient monitoring solution clinically vetted with Mayo Clinic. Sepsis DART™ monitors and communicates regarding all aspects of sepsis treatment and sepsis bundle compliance to the exemplary practitioners at the right time, even between care locations and shifting staff.
Sepsis DART™ (Detection and Response Tool) is the ultimate patient surveillance and alerting solution. It is designed to analyze patient data, identify potential sepsis conditions early, and offer medical staff the right information for detection. Smart Notifications automate tracking of the treatment process for improved sepsis bundle compliance by following the patient across multiple hospitals and through different hospital units, services, and environments. DART™ integrates with any EMR system and is configurable for various clinical conditions.
For more information on how Sepsis DART™ helps you with sepsis bundle compliance, please visit our website here or contact tim.kuebelbeck@ambientclinical.com.
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