Each hour treatment is delayed increases risk of death.
As a resident in emergency medicine nearly two decades ago, Tiffany M. Osborn, MD, became determined to prevent people from dying of sepsis, an unruly, fast–acting, potentially fatal condition.

Osborn, who specializes in critical care and is a leading expert in sepsis, co–authored a study published May 21 in The New England Journal of Medicine that stresses the need for an aggressive response to the condition.

The research was presented May 21 at the American Thoracic Society’s International Conference.

The study confirmed the importance of hospitals following a protocol to rapidly identify and treat sepsis. For each hour sepsis treatment is delayed, the study found a patient’s risk of death increases by 4 percent.

The researchers analyzed nearly 50,000 sepsis patients from 149 hospitals in New York state between April 2014 and June 2016.