What is CDC Doing?

CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion’s sepsis-related work includes:

• Understanding the epidemiology of sepsis by assessing the:
  • Adult sepsis burden and identifying potential opportunities to improve outcomes of people with sepsis. See Incidence and Trends of Sepsis in US Hospitals Using Clinical vs Claims Data, 2009-2014 and Assessment of Health Care Exposures and Outcomes in Adult Patients With Sepsis and Septic Shock.
  • Epidemiology of sepsis in children and young adults. See Epidemiology of Sepsis in US Children and Young Adults.

• Developing tools for tracking sepsis, such as:
  • The Hospital Toolkit for Adult Sepsis Surveillance [PDF – 32 pages], to help healthcare facilities assess adult sepsis incidence within their facilities.
  • The Hospital Sepsis Program Core Elements,  a guide to help hospitals develop multi-professional programs to monitor and optimize sepsis early identification, management, and outcomes.
  • Sepsis program practices will be tracked in future CDC National Healthcare Safety Network Annual Surveys
• Working with partners, including the CDC Prevention Epicenters, and other Federal agencies, to develop innovative ways to improve sepsis early detection and treatment.
• Promoting early recognition and timely treatment of sepsis through:
  • Get Ahead of Sepsis, CDC’s educational effort for patients, family members/caregivers and healthcare professionals—information available on the Educational Information page of this website.
  • Collaboration with partners, including government, hospital associations, patient representatives, professional societies for clinical providers, and quality improvement organizations to amplify sepsis awareness efforts and improve antibiotic prescribing and use.
• Preventing infections that can lead to sepsis in healthcare and community settings. See Infection Control.