Investigators at Harvard Medical School Describe Findings in Sepsis (Improving Sepsis Outcomes In the Era of Pay-for-performance and Electronic Quality Measures: a Joint Idsa/acep/pids/shea/shm/sidp Position Paper).

A joint position paper from Harvard Medical School and several medical organizations highlights concerns with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) plan to incorporate the Severe Sepsis/Septic Shock Management Bundle (SEP-1) into the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program. The paper recommends retiring SEP-1 and shifting to new sepsis metrics that focus on patient outcomes. The researchers also support the development of a community-onset sepsis 30-day mortality electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) by CMS, but recommend removing certain criteria to streamline implementation and avoid promoting antibiotic use in uninfected patients. The paper concludes by providing recommendations to improve CMS's planned electronic sepsis mortality measure. [Extracted from the article]