CDC tells hospitals to “do better” when it comes to sepsis survival
Feds WAGGING their fingers at hospitals for ABYSMAL sepsis care
It’s one of the WORST things that can happen to you while you’re in the hospital.
It can turn a ROUTINE visit into a LIFE-THREATENING scenario.
And if you’re a little “long in the tooth”… you’re in the crosshairs for an even MORE serious case of it.
I’m talking about sepsis.
In milder cases, your immune system begins to TURN on itself… causing anything from body temperature fluctuations and brain fog to signs of an infection or extreme illness.
If not treated, it can ESCALATE… resulting in a severe and sudden DROP in blood pressure… otherwise known as septic shock.
At that point, the clock is TICKING…
Because with every HOUR that passes… your chances of NOT SURVIVING this condition increase by 7.6%, according to one study out of Canada.
Now, with such an ALARMING medical emergency… you’d think that hospitals would do EVERYTHING in their power to make sure it NEVER happens…
And that if sepsis DOES take hold… they can act QUICKLY and EFFICIENTLY to clobber the HECK out of it.
Unfortunately, that’s just not true.
In fact, it’s gotten so bad in care settings… the CDC has stepped in!
I took a look at their recently-released “Hospital Sepsis Program Core Elements”… and I gotta say, I’m none too impressed.
The feds are falling back on what they know best.
BUREAUCRACY!
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What they expect hospitals to do comes down to the following:
- CONVINCE executives how urgent sepsis is.
- ASSIGN a scapegoat for when things go wrong.
- FORM a committee to wring their hands over the sepsis problem.
- COUNT sepsis cases and TRACK what happens to the patients.
- LEARN what to do when sepsis occurs.
That’s right -- some hospitals DON’T have these “common sense” aspects of care already in place!
How many folks will DIE of sepsis in the meantime?
What I’d like to see is a lot LESS red tape… and MORE of hospitals getting those sepsis case numbers DOWN in the first place.
They can start by CURTAILING hospital-acquired infections.
Now, ANY infection could lead to sepsis…
And unfortunately, hospitals are CESSPOOLS that could infect you with a UTI… C. diff… or pneumonia. You could even catch a “superbug” that resists drug treatment… like MRSA or the turbo-charged yeast infection known as Candida auris.
Basically, any time there’s a tube stuck in you… or you’re SLICED open… it could become a BREEDING GROUND for some pretty bad bugs.
The other problem… one of the reasons why SO MANY sepsis patients AREN’T surviving… is that the condition sometimes goes UNDIAGNOSED and UNTREATED for far too long.
See, sepsis can cause a wide array of symptoms that are often mistaken as signs of other conditions.
If you’re in the hospital… and you’re declining… INSIST they consider sepsis as the culprit.
Unfortunately, their standard “go-to” treatment is usually IV fluids and antibiotics… and maybe a drug to FORCE your BP to rise…
But that might not be ENOUGH.
And they might not know about the “sepsis cocktail” that was first discovered in 2017… a relatively innocuous combo of three ingredients given intravenously:
- Hydrocortisone
- Ascorbic acid (a.k.a. vitamin C)
- Thiamine (a.k.a. vitamin B1)
You can remember it by the acronym “H.A.T.”
The hospital SHOULDN’T balk at giving it to you… as there’s plenty of evidence that sepsis patients feel better after receiving corticosteroids like hydrocortisone…
And the other two ingredients are merely humble vitamins!
The key, however, is to administer these three TOGETHER… as the whole seems to be greater than the sum of its parts.
I pray you’ll never face sepsis, friend… but I’d rather ARM you with this information now… before it’s TOO LATE.
In pursuit of the truth,
Dr. Marc S. Micozzi, M.D., Ph.D.