“Sepsis is when there’s an infection in the body that has spread into the bloodstream, and it can be very dangerous,” Kino told Verywell. Part of that danger lies in the fact that sepsis causes collateral damage to vital organs. Infections that lead to sepsis typically start in the urinary tract, skin, lung, or GI system.1
In the United States, 1.7 million adults develop sepsis every year.
“Sepsis contributes between a third to a half of all U.S. hospital deaths—more common than heart attack and stroke combined,” Hallie Prescott, MD, MSc, associate professor of internal medicine in pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Michigan, told Verywell.
Since healthcare facilities are supposed to be clean, safe places where you go to get better, it might surprise you to learn that you can actually get sepsis while you’re in the hospital. In honor of Patient Safety Awareness Week, we’re bringing attention to this risk.
While most cases of sepsis start outside the hospital, roughly 15% of sepsis cases are acquired in the hospital, according to Prescott. Some research even suggests that sepsis death rates may be higher in people who developed the infection in the hospital compared to those who got it in a non-hospital setting.
While sepsis isn’t always avoidable, there are some proactive preventive steps patients and their families can take during a hospital stay.
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