UVA doctor helps craft new guidelines to speed up sepsis treatment

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - A UVA Health doctor is helping develop new guidelines aimed at helping sepsis patients.

Sepsis is a full-body infection responsible for one in every three deaths that occur in hospitals. Doctors across the country worked to find ways to increase the speed at which people are treated.

The new guidelines encourage hospitals to implement rapid testing, therapy and surveillance. They also work to prevent and slow down septic shock.

“This is really about how hospital systems can align and make processes that can be really slow but make them quick.” UVA Health Department of Medicine Interim Chair Dr. Taison Bell said. “When we do have someone who is really sick from septic shock, we really want all the systems to align so we can move quickly.”

The guidelines also remind families to take immediate action if someone they know has an infection that seems severe or shows any signs of sepsis.

The full sepsis guidelines can be found in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal.

Do you have a story idea? Send us your news tip here.