A New York State requirement that all hospitals report compliance with protocols to treat severe sepsis and septic shock appears to improve care and reduce mortality from one of the most common causes of death in those who are critically ill, according to a new study published online in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Patients who received the sepsis bundles also had shorter hospital stays. At hospitals with the highest rates of compliance with the three-hour bundle, length of stay was nearly three days shorter. At hospitals with the highest rates of compliance with the six-hour bundle, length of stay was more than a day shorter. The researchers found that over the study period, the health care team increasingly initiated the sepsis bundles.

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