NYT: Cuomo plans new rules in fight against sepsis NYT: Cuomo plans new rules in fight against sepsis - Top stories updated 1 hour 15 minutes ago Top stories Cuomo plans new rules in fight against sepsis Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo will announce in his State of the State Message this week that every hospital in New York must adopt aggressive procedures for identifying sepsis in patients, including the use of a countdown clock to begin treatment within an hour of spotting it, a state official said. The new steps could save 5,000 to 8,000 lives annually, state health officials say, and reduce the long-term costs of the condition. In a related development, state regulators will develop new procedures for parents to "play a meaningful and informed role" in decisions made about care for their children, according to a draft of the message to be delivered by the governor. Both initiatives were prompted by the case of Rory Staunton, a 12-year-old Queens boy who died of severe septic shock last year after being sent home from the emergency room at NYU Langone Medical Center. Rory's parents, Ciaran and Orlaith Staunton, said they did not realize that the results of blood tests ordered for their son had not come back at the time he was discharged. Those results suggested that he could be critically ill, but the Stauntons learned about them only when they received a laboratory bill after Rory's death. Sepsis is a runaway response by the immune system to an infection. In pushing forward on sepsis screening regulations, New York is adopting standards similar to those recommended last year for the entire country by the National Quality Forum, a consortium of health care experts that provides guidance to hospitals and the Medicare system on best practices. The state health commissioner, Nirav R. Shah, held a conference on sepsis in November and advised Mr. Cuomo on the reforms, according to the state official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the governor's message had not yet been formally presented. Mr. Cuomo's message notes that experts have been calling for action on sepsis for more than a decade, and that simple screening tools used by Kaiser Permanente in California, and Intermountain Healthcare in Utah, two hospital chains, had drastically reduced sepsis mortality rates. The Society of Critical Care Medicine is announcing revised guidelines later this month, and the governor's message says that hospitals must use a protocol that "aligns with proven best practices." To date, no other state has taken regulatory action to require that such guidelines be used, according to New York officials. The Staunton case is cited in the governor's message as bringing new urgency to the efforts. "I think this is a great step for Governor Cuomo to take," Mr. Staunton said. "You cannot just hand-wring any more and say, "We're doing our best." This has to be tackled. The proposal by the governor on parental involvement in their children's care was not spelled out. Ms. Staunton and her husband have urged that state law mandate that hospitals inform parents about test results as well as other diagnoses that were considered. "Most doctors already do that," Ms. Staunton said, "so it shouldn't be a problem to require it so that they all do it." This story, "Cuomo Plans New Rules in Fight Against Sepsis," first appeared in The New York Times. More from Top stories