JAMA Study Sets National Benchmarks for U.S. Pediatric Sepsis, Linking It to Nearly One in Five Hospital Deaths

Overview

• Analyzing 3.9 million hospitalizations from 2016 to 2023, investigators identified 51,542 non‑neonatal cases, an incidence of 1.3%—about one in 75 admissions.
• More than 10% of children with sepsis died before discharge, and the authors estimate over 18,000 U.S. pediatric cases and more than 1,800 in-hospital deaths each year.
• The Pediatric Sepsis Event criteria translate organ-dysfunction constructs into objective EHR elements, including laboratory results, antibiotic treatment, and markers of organ failure.
• Validation against physician chart review showed greater accuracy than billing-code methods, enabling comparable surveillance across hundreds of hospitals.
• Most cases were present on admission, while hospital-acquired episodes were less common but had higher mortality, with national rates remaining relatively stable from 2016 to 2022.