Dr. Faheem Guirgis, an emergency physician at the University of Florida’s UF Health Jacksonville, said, “Sepsis is a big problem, and one of the most difficult and common conditions faced by healthcare providers and policy makers. Contributing to the challenge is the lack of gold-standard diagnostic tests for making the diagnosis, changing definitions, and the complexity of taking care of septic patients.”

“Furthermore, as the population grows older, and as the chronic disease burden of the general population increases, patients become more susceptible to sepsis,” he told Reuters Health by email. “Elderly patients, patients on hemodialysis and chemotherapy, the more times they access a healthcare facility the higher their risk of infection, and thus the higher their risk of sepsis. It’s almost a consequence of advanced care that allows people to live longer with more medical conditions.”

“I think prevention is one key, but there are going to be many other pieces to this puzzle,” said Dr. Guirgis, who also was not involved study.

“Sepsis should not be viewed as a one-and-done phenomenon,” said Dr. Mark E. Mikkelsen, chief of medical critical care at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

“As many as one in four sepsis survivors are readmitted within 30 days, many with a recurrent life-threatening infection,” he told Reuters Health by email. “Arming patients with this knowledge is key, so that patients and clinicians can detect and treat new or recurrent infections in a timely manner after sepsis.”

“This study supports that the hospital readmission reduction program should add sepsis to their targeted conditions,” said Dr. Mikkelsen, who was not part of the research.