New York Home Care Association Sponsors Sepsis Summit

ALBANY (June 14, 2022)—New York state and national sepsis experts, advocates and leaders from nearly every sector in the health care system will converge for a statewide, all-sector collaborative summit on sepsis, June 15 at the Albany Hilton. The summit is convened with the support of a critical sepsis grant to the New Yorks’s Home Care Association (HCA) for an all-partner collaborative initiative: Improving Sepsis Prevention, Screening and Intervention in the Community and Across the Continuum. 

Sepsis impacts individuals across the entire continuum of care, with 80%-90% of sepsis related infections occurring in the home and community. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) projected Medicare costs for sepsis admissions to hospitals and nursing homes are $62 billion, for 2019 alone. Sepsis deaths can be substantially preventable, but the solution requires participation and collaboration across the entire health care system. According to national health officials and sepsis leaders like Sepsis Alliance and ENDSEPSIS-The Legacy of Rory Staunton, over a quarter million individuals—young and old—die of sepsis each year; one every two minutes. Every 20 seconds a person is hospitalized with sepsis, and one-in-four are rehospitalized within 30 days. 

“New York State leads the nation in sepsis identification, treatment and care. Between the years of 2015 and 2019, over 16,000 lives were saved in the state through mandatory sepsis protocols, called Rory’s Regulations,” said Orlaith Staunton of ENDSEPSIS. “The Home Care Association of NYS has worked hard to ensure the success of these protocols and we are grateful to continue our work with them at the 2022 Sepsis Summit.” 

The upcoming summit is one component of a comprehensive tier in the “Improving Sepsis Prevention” grant which is chartered to promote sepsis intervention in community and across the continuum. The initiative includes: expanded home and community health sepsis screening and intervention in underserved areas; sepsis in special populations such as pediatrics, maternal, mental health, disabilities, veterans and more; development of a pediatric sepsis assessment tool and protocol for use in the care of medically complex children in home health (now developed and being beta tested under this initiative); further coordination of sepsis response across sectors; and exploration of the development of “comprehensive, multiservice sepsis collaboratives.” 
 
State and national experts and partners across the continuum will engage in major collaborative discussion on sepsis at the June 15 Sepsis Summit. This major joining of forces and its follow-up efforts aim to further promote effective sepsis response by engaging all system sectors to mitigate the deadly risk of sepsis.  
 
New York continues to be at the cutting edge of efforts to combat sepsis, developing and implementing policies and innovations across the healthcare system. Hospitals across the state are incorporating “Rory’s Regulations” and sepsis protocols and schools have implemented NY’s “Rory’s Law” (both led by ENDSEPSIS—The Legacy of Rory Staunton). For over five years homecare agencies have been implementing a homecare sepsis screening and intervention tool and protocol, developed by state HCA assisted by Sepsis Alliance and ENDSEPSIS, which adds a critical layer of screening in the home and community. Emergency medical service providers have also adopted sepsis protocols. 
 
Sepsis Alliance has developed templates for sepsis education and intervention across sectors and practice disciplines, and is now launching the Sepsis Innovations Collaborative. IPRO, the state and federal quality improvement organization, has also been in the forefront of education and early recognition efforts, and in one initiative, training over 10,000 NY clinicians in early sepsis recognition and response, helping to perfect the HCA home health sepsis tool, and collecting and reporting key sepsis data. 

“HCA applauds Sepsis Alliance and ENDSEPSIS for their national and indeed global leadership in all aspects of sepsis, said President and CEO of HCA, Al Cardillo. “These organizations are at the forefront of this endeavor. Sepsis is one of the most pervasive, impactful and deadly health conditions; and one that we and all health sectors must work together to fight. By working together, as exemplified in this summit and in the steps we take beyond, we can dramatically improve awareness, prevention, detection, treatment and post-sepsis care. Persons who are in home health, or who can be helped by home health, are in the especially high-risk categories, and HCA and our service organizations are dedicated to the fight.” 

View the full agenda here.