Low Compliance with CMS Sepsis-1 Quality Standards

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Severe Sepsis/Septic Shock Early Management Bundle (SEP-1) quality measure was introduced in 2015. In that same year, the American College of Emergency Physicians launched the Emergency Quality Network Sepsis Initiative to monitor practice. These investigators reviewed self-reported data on bundle adherence from 50 hospital-based emergency departments participating in the Initiative.

The average hospital bundle compliance rate was 54% (range, 10%–100%). Compliance with each bundle component varied from roughly 5% for vasopressor administration to 90% for serum lactate measurement. Variation in compliance was widest for intravenous fluid resuscitation and repeated lactate measurements.