WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Clinician and public policy leaders from the Novant Health Center for Public Policy Solutions today released the Center’s latest report with the goal of improving sepsis care across the Novant Health footprint and reducing clinician burnout. The report, “Reducing Sepsis Risk: The Role of Public Policy in Protecting Patients,” explores challenges driving sepsis complications, at times even death, and offers a clear path to improve health outcomes.
Coinciding with Sepsis Awareness Month, the study’s release presents policymakers in states such as North Carolina and South Carolina with an actionable solution: Enact statutes to ensure consistent early detection and treatment standards for sepsis. While Novant Health and some other systems have adopted such standards, a patchwork approach remains, leaving patients at risk of inconsistent access to sepsis care. It was that risk that drove the Center’s clinician leaders and public policy experts to action.
“At Novant Health, when our clinicians identify challenges, we are proud of the ways we take action to address them,” said Carl S. Armato, president and CEO, Novant Health. “We started by providing industry-leading sepsis care at all Novant Health hospitals, but we weren’t willing to stop there. Today’s report from the Novant Health Center for Public Policy Solutions takes the call for life-saving sepsis care beyond our walls to the halls of state legislatures across our region. Our team offers a solution that, if implemented, would improve health outcomes by keeping patients and clinicians at the center of public policies.”
Report findings
Center experts found that public policy solutions favorably impact sepsis outcomes most when policies are based on what’s known as the Sepsis-2 definition. That definition centers on early detection and accurately views sepsis as a continuum, rather than a static state. That means doctors start treating sepsis much faster, rather than waiting for patients to worsen. This approach is strongly endorsed by front-line clinicians for its effectiveness in improving patient outcomes and minimizes care delays that increase cost, create long-term health impacts, and in the worst cases, can be fatal.
Data showed those fatalities are a challenge as sepsis remains the third leading cause of death in the U.S. The cost of a sepsis-related hospitalization is more than double the average cost of a hospitalization across all other conditions. For the clinician experts at the Center, the human and financial costs of sepsis were simply too high to remain silent.
“For sepsis, every minute counts, so waiting for action was no longer an option,” said Dr. David Priest, senior vice president, and chief safety and quality officer, Novant Health and a practicing infectious disease physician. “For those of us aligned with health systems or in states where the Sepsis-2 definition guides our care, we are well positioned keep patients at the center of everything we do. But, as this report shows, there are gaps between clinical best practice, theory-based protocols, and what insurers will ultimately cover. I commend authors Dr. Dan Feinstein, Dr. Elizabeth Dunbar and Becky DeCamillis for their work on this report that stands to bridge those gaps, and we are looking forward to opportunities to partner with policymakers to get this solution over the finish line.”
About the Novant Health Center for Public Policy Solutions
The Novant Health Center for Public Policy Solutions addresses the most pressing healthcare challenges of our time. To create a healthier future, we provide front-line clinician-driven public policy solutions to combat clinician burnout, improve patient satisfaction, increase access to safe and quality care, promote greater affordability, and eliminate the government mandates that are barriers to bring remarkable experiences to life.
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