Another study is raising questions about whether compliance with a federally mandated hospital protocol aimed at improving sepsis care and management is associated with better outcomes.
The study, published this week in JAMA Network Open, found that sepsis patients who received care that was noncompliant with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock Management Bundle (SEP-1) tended to be older, have more comorbidities, and have more complex clinical presentation than those who received compliant care. When those factors were accounted for, SEP-1 compliance was no longer associated with improved mortality.
The study comes on the heels of a systematic review and meta-analysis, published last month in the Annals of Internal Medicine, that found no evidence that SEP-1 compliance…