The Economics of Sepsis
A little sidebar that I would like to bunny trail down is the idea of the economics behind sepsis.
What happens on the financial side of things when a patient comes in with an infection and turns out to be septic? The aftermath can actually be extremely detrimental to the patient, their family, and the hospital itself. Sepsis has been a National Patient Safety Goal since 2017 and it is a very large area of concern, lots of people die every year of sepsis that may have been preventable or treatable and lots of hospitals lose a lot of money because they don't get reimbursed for hospital-acquired conditions.
Sepsis is important, and it affects absolutely everyone.
There are a couple of different scenarios in which a patient can present as septic and its important to define them:
Scenario A: The patient came into the ED already septic:
This one is all on the patient's insurance most of the time
Scenario B: The patient came into the ED without sepsis, but acquired it later during their stay:
This would be considered a fallout on the hospital's part and the hospital must cover the cost of it
Scenario C: The patient came into the ED after a recent admission with sepsis:
This would also be considered a fallout for the hospital and would require that we cover the bill.
What do those 3 scenarios tell us? 2/3 reasons a patient could be presenting into the ED and not leave this facility alive could cost the hospital itself thousands, and potentially millions, of dollars. And even in the first scenario when the patient fell septic on their own accord, they could pick up all sorts of hospital-acquired conditions along the way that the hospital would have to cover the bill for.
We cannot afford to take a chance that the patient falls into that first 1/3 and it won't cost us anything. And then, money aside, we cannot afford to let our sepsis care slip. I know we are currently talking in dollars and cents, but these are also patient lives that we are taking bets on. A good hospital looks at patient outcomes, and the savings will come into play afterwards, I promise.
Last year alone, patients that went septic in our hospitals cost the nation 3.3 trillion dollars. That is an absolute unfathomable number. Quite honestly, a lot of the information in sepsis research is beyond overwhelming. What I would actually like to leave you with after overwhelming you over the cost of sepsis, and the idea that the fast majority of sepsis is our fault, is that step-by-step you and I can play a big role in sepsis in our own hospitals.
It all starts with treating sepsis in our own patients better. That will impact more than you think it will. And then you never know, that can morph into making you a sepsis coordinator or clinical educator and then the opportunities are limitless. Each one of us has a very important role to play in sepsis management. And each of one has an impact on that 3.3 trillion dollars. We either can help that amount go up or go down, its your choice.
Sources:
https://www-sciencedirect-com.proxy.pba.edu/science/article/pii/S0899588518309547?via%3Dihub
What happens on the financial side of things when a patient comes in with an infection and turns out to be septic? The aftermath can actually be extremely detrimental to the patient, their family, and the hospital itself. Sepsis has been a National Patient Safety Goal since 2017 and it is a very large area of concern, lots of people die every year of sepsis that may have been preventable or treatable and lots of hospitals lose a lot of money because they don't get reimbursed for hospital-acquired conditions.
Sepsis is important, and it affects absolutely everyone.
There are a couple of different scenarios in which a patient can present as septic and its important to define them:
Scenario A: The patient came into the ED already septic:
This one is all on the patient's insurance most of the time
Scenario B: The patient came into the ED without sepsis, but acquired it later during their stay:
This would be considered a fallout on the hospital's part and the hospital must cover the cost of it
Scenario C: The patient came into the ED after a recent admission with sepsis:
This would also be considered a fallout for the hospital and would require that we cover the bill.
What do those 3 scenarios tell us? 2/3 reasons a patient could be presenting into the ED and not leave this facility alive could cost the hospital itself thousands, and potentially millions, of dollars. And even in the first scenario when the patient fell septic on their own accord, they could pick up all sorts of hospital-acquired conditions along the way that the hospital would have to cover the bill for.
We cannot afford to take a chance that the patient falls into that first 1/3 and it won't cost us anything. And then, money aside, we cannot afford to let our sepsis care slip. I know we are currently talking in dollars and cents, but these are also patient lives that we are taking bets on. A good hospital looks at patient outcomes, and the savings will come into play afterwards, I promise.
Last year alone, patients that went septic in our hospitals cost the nation 3.3 trillion dollars. That is an absolute unfathomable number. Quite honestly, a lot of the information in sepsis research is beyond overwhelming. What I would actually like to leave you with after overwhelming you over the cost of sepsis, and the idea that the fast majority of sepsis is our fault, is that step-by-step you and I can play a big role in sepsis in our own hospitals.
It all starts with treating sepsis in our own patients better. That will impact more than you think it will. And then you never know, that can morph into making you a sepsis coordinator or clinical educator and then the opportunities are limitless. Each one of us has a very important role to play in sepsis management. And each of one has an impact on that 3.3 trillion dollars. We either can help that amount go up or go down, its your choice.
Sources:
https://www-sciencedirect-com.proxy.pba.edu/science/article/pii/S0899588518309547?via%3Dihub
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