Sepsis Mortality Distribution in the U.S.

Sepsis is responsible for 750,000 hospital admissions and 215,000 deaths annually in the U.S. To determine how the burden of sepsis is distributed across the country, researchers analyzed county-level sepsis-mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics for the years 2003 through 2012 and compared that with county-level community characteristics and demographic data from a 2010 American Community Survey through the National Historical Geographic Information System. Sepsis-related deaths were assumed in all deaths attributed to an infection.

Spatial aggregation of sepsis-related deaths was found to be strongly clustered in 5.2% of the 3108 counties included in the analysis, moderately clustered in 7.5%, and nonclustered in 87.…