Research Shows Thousands of Sepsis Cases Could Have Been Prevented by Nursing Home Staff

In an investigation conducted by Kaiser Health News and the Chicago Tribune, it was revealed that nursing homes throughout the United States aren’t doing enough to prevent bedsores and other infections that can lead to sepsis. Unfortunately, no one is keeping official record of how often sepsis cases become fatal, but a federal report suggests that care related to the treatment of sepsis is the most common reason that nursing home residents are transferred to hospitals. The report said that cases like these ended in death “much more often” than other conditions that lead to hospitalization.

Definitive Healthcare conducted in depth analysis for Kaiser Health News, which revealed that the health and financial toll for sepsis cases is significant. The private health care data firm examined data for nursing home residents who were transferred to hospitals and eventually died. The analysis revealed that 25,000 nursing home residents suffer from sepsis and other serious health conditions. Medicare billings from 2012 through 2016 show that treatments for sepsis costs Medicare more than $2 billion each year.

According to Definitive’s analysis, of the 6,000 nursing home residents who are hospitalized for sepsis in Illinois each year, 1 in 5 don’t survive.

Dr. Steven Simpson, an expert on sepsis and professor at the University of Kansas, said “This is an enormous public health problem for the United States. People don’t go to a nursing home so they can get sepsis and die. That is what is happening a lot.”

Sepsis is a bloodstream infection that tends to develop in patients who are bedridden due to the following conditions:

• Pneumonia
• Urinary tract infections
• Pressure sores

Patient safety groups say that pressure sores can be prevented by simply turning immobile patients over every couple of hours, in addition to other precautions. Government regulations also state that nursing homes are required to enforce strict infection-control standards to minimize harm to their residents.

Despite these regulations, sepsis continues to be a widespread problem in nursing homes across the country. As a result, countless facilities have been sued over bedsores and other common infections that contributed to serious harm or death. However, the outcome of these lawsuits is unclear because most of these cases have been settled with the terms of the agreements being kept confidential.