News: Roughly 90% of sepsis deaths are unpreventable, study finds

Despite buzz about reducing sepsis mortality rates, a new study from the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that 88% of sepsis deaths are unpreventable.

The researchers reviewed 568 patients’ medical records who died after admission to six hospitals. Of those, 300 patients died with either definite or possible sepsis considered to have directly caused the deaths of 198, PulmCCM reported.

After a detailed review of the medical records, researchers found that only 3.7% of patients’ deaths were considered moderately or definitely preventable, based on apparent deviations from reasonable care.

Of the 300 patients who died with sepsis, 121 were considered to have hospice-qualifying conditions (e.g., metastatic cancer, dementia, strokes with severe disability, etc.), and most others also had a high burden of chronic disease. In its coverage of the JAMA study, PulmCCM suggests that the reviewers may underestimate suboptimal care or be unable to detect it by medical record review.

“Our findings do not diminish the importance of trying to prevent as many sepsis-associated deaths as possible, but rather underscore that most fatalities occur in medically complex patients with severe comorbid conditions,” the researchers of the JAMA study wrote. “Further innovations in the prevention and care of underlying conditions may be necessary before a major reduction in sepsis-associated deaths can be achieved.”

Editor’s note: To read PulmCCM’s coverage of this story, click here. To read the full study from JAMA, click here. To read about a Maryland-based hospital that did successfully reduce sepsis mortality, click here.