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El Camino Health officials are concerned about a growing death rate among patients who show up at the hospital with sepsis, which has increased steadily over the last year and significantly boosted mortality rates.
The life-threatening condition, caused by infections, has a high survival rate when it’s treated during the early stages of the illness. But more and more patients are arriving with sepsis that has progressed far enough that it’s difficult to reverse, with widespread inflammation damaging internal organs.
Depending on the month, upwards of 12% of patients with sepsis have died at El Camino Hospital. In August, that amounted to 10 deaths — roughly one-third of all deaths at the hospital that month — making it a serious concern for hospital leadership.
Sepsis deaths are unfortunately on the rise across the country, said Dr. Mark Adams, El Camino’s chief medical officer. The condition often arises from things like a urinary tract infection, pneumonia and even COVID-19, and typically can be treated with antibiotics, fluid treatment and blood pressure maintenance.
But when symptoms worsen and sepsis enters the inflammatory phase, that’s when treatment get more complicated. Adams said the body’s immune system overreacts to the infection at that point and begins to attack the body, causing organ damage and in some cases leading to death.
“When people get to that phase, it gets a little more difficult to stop the progression of the sepsis process,” Adams said. “It can be difficult to reverse it.”
The prevailing theory is that sepsis deaths are up because people are taking too long to get care when they get sick or experience symptoms, Adams said. People have been reluctant to come to the hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic for care, particularly preventative measures like cancer screenings. Mammograms and colonoscopies, for example, are much lower than normal.
This doesn’t bode well for sepsis cases, where early detection and treatment can be a life-saver. High fever, lightheadedness from low blood pressure, night sweats and difficulty breathing are all early warning signs, and Adams encouraged those experiencing the symptoms to go to the doctor.
Contrary to earlier phases of the pandemic, the number of people showing up in the emergency room has spiked in recent months, and the people who are showing up are sicker than usual. Hospital officials reported 16,386 visits to the emergency department between July and September of this year, 31% more than anticipated. Those numbers now exceed pre-pandemic levels, Adams said.
While the uptick in sepsis deaths is caused in large part by patients not showing up at the hospital before it gets worse, the hospital has made some adjustments to better treat those suffering from sepsis. Adams said there was some early reluctance in providing fluids to sepsis patients who also had COVID or pneumonia, fearing it would lead to pulmonary edema — also known as wet lung. Physicians are now learning that it’s probably okay to give fluids to sepsis patients, he said.
The bright spot is that the sepsis mortality rate declined in September and could be trending downward. The deaths are also fairly low compared to other hospitals in the country, Adams said, which have struggled with death rates in excess of 30%.
Is it possible that the delay in getting primary care due to backlog, is preventing basic conditions from being identified before they require the dire visit to ER? I know personally that the primary care visits I have scheduled for current issues are months out. Even diagnostics marked as “urgent” are scheduled 6 weeks out – due to sheer appointment availability. I cannot even imagine what it’s like for those without insurance. I’m not a medical professional, but it seems a UTI or pneumonia can be caught by a primary care visit.
I can’t believe that these patients with sepsis or Covid 19 were not given fluids: “Adams said there was some early reluctance in providing fluids to sepsis patients who also had COVID or pneumonia, fearing it would lead to pulmonary edema,” now he says that it should be OK to change the protocols. Great medical care! Go to the hospital and die!
Has El Camino Hospital and other hospitals across the country studied the cause of these deaths? Have all these patients received treated with the Covid 19 RNA? Are these deaths related to a weakened immune system due to Covid vaccination? I am sure ECH has the records and these findings should be released.
“The prevailing theory is that sepsis deaths are up because people are taking too long to get care when they get sick or experience symptoms, Adams said.”
Sure … but WHY are persons taking too long to get care? THAT is the important question that needs to be answered.
What is the insurance status of these persons? The price of health care, even with insurance, continues to skyrocket. Those who cannot afford high costs become motivated to delay going to see a doctor unless the problem becomes absolutely serious.
68,000 people die every year in this country because they cannot afford health insurance.
The headline infers that it’s the hospital’s fault that deaths are up, but that’s not what the article reports.