Defense Health Care: Information on Sepsis Incidence and Management

What GAO Found

Sepsis is a life-threatening condition caused by an extreme response to an infection in the body and typically requires hospital care. GAO's analysis of Defense Health Agency data indicates that the number of inpatient admissions at military medical treatment facilities that involved sepsis was relatively consistent from fiscal year 2017 through fiscal year 2023. These admissions accounted for more than 15,000 (about 1 percent) of the almost 1.3 million total inpatient admissions for this 7-year period. Further, for 86 percent of the admissions involving sepsis, the condition was present when the patient was admitted.

The Defense Health Agency formed a Sepsis Working Group in 2021 to standardize efforts related to sepsis detection, diagnosis, and treatment across military medical treatment facilities. In February 2025, the Defense Health Agency released a policy memorandum developed by the Sepsis Working Group. This memorandum establishes a sepsis strategy in the military medical treatment facilities, referencing national standards and guidelines, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Hospital Sepsis Program Core Elements and the Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines.

The Defense Health Agency tracks information on four sepsis-related quality measures. For these measures, military medical treatment facilities generally performed comparable to, or better than, the benchmark rates for all hospitals applicable to calendar year 2023. For example, military medical treatment facilities performed comparable to, or better than, the benchmark rates for all hospitals for measures pertaining to patients receiving appropriate care for sepsis in hospital settings, the death rate among surgical inpatients with sepsis as a serious treatable complication, and the rate of postoperative sepsis. Staff GAO interviewed at selected military medical treatment facilities did not report experiencing any major challenges specific to sepsis diagnosis and treatment.

Why GAO Did This Study 

The Department of Defense is responsible for providing health care to approximately 9.4 million beneficiaries, including care that could involve the diagnosis and treatment of sepsis. The department's Defense Health Agency coordinates the delivery of these health services, in part through care provided at agency-operated military medical treatment facilities.

The House Report accompanying the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 includes a provision for GAO to report on various issues related to sepsis within the Department of Defense. This report describes admissions involving sepsis at military medical treatment facilities and sepsis management efforts within the Defense Health Agency, including what entities focus on sepsis, what information is tracked, and selected military medical treatment facility experiences with sepsis diagnosis and treatment.

To conduct this work, GAO analyzed Defense Health Agency data on inpatient admissions involving sepsis at military medical treatment facilities from fiscal year 2017 through fiscal year 2023—the most recent data available. GAO also reviewed information on sepsis-related quality measures tracked by the Defense Health Agency and facilities' performance on these measures. GAO interviewed and obtained information from Defense Health Agency officials and staff from selected military medical treatment facilities, which were selected for variation in the number of sepsis cases treated, inpatient bed capacity, affiliated service branch, and geography.

For more information, contact Alyssa M. Hundrup at HundrupA@gao.gov.