VIDEO: Key challenges in preventing sepsis

Editor’s note: This is an automatically generated transcript, which has been slightly edited for clarity. Please notify editor@healio.com if there are concerns regarding accuracy of the transcription.

Important to understand that the vast majority of sepsis cases arise in the community, so from the standpoint of health care systems, preventing sepsis I think requires a very broad and holistic approach. And this includes excellent primary prevention through the management of chronic conditions. This is really important since the vast majority of cases of sepsis occurs in patients who have underlying comorbidities such as diabetes, cancer, and chronic lung disease, etc. And especially when those chronic conditions are not well controlled.

And part of good primary prevention is ensuring patients receive age- and condition-appropriate vaccines since most of the vaccine-preventable infections like influenza, strep, pneumonia, meningococcus, SARS COVID-2, and now respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) can actually lead to sepsis. We need to consider good access to primary care and urgent care centers that deal with milder infections before they progress to sepsis. And to the extent that health care systems can address or at least take into account the socioeconomic factors that affect access to health care and the control of underlying comorbidities, I think this is an important factor, too.

Health care systems can also consider improving education for patients, families and caregivers, so they know how to look for the signs of sepsis and when to seek medical attention. And since many patients with sepsis who are hospitalized subsequently get readmitted with sepsis, I think ensuring good transitions of care including to rehab facilities or home care and subsequent follow-up is really important.

Now about 10% to 15% of sepsis cases arise in patients who are hospitalized. And so, prevention of hospital-onset sepsis really comes down to preventing specific hospital-acquired infections. So this includes the standard health care-associated infections (HAIs) that we all think about for our national quality measures like central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, Clostridioides difficile infections, surgical site infections, etc., as well as infections like hospital-acquired pneumonia and bloodstream infections from sources other than central lines.

The topic of best practices for HAI prevention I think is a whole, another talk in and of itself. So, suffice to say for now that fastidious infection control practices are really important in preventing hospital acquired sepsis.