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GAO-25-107357 1 (April 23, 2025)

handle is hein.gao/dfnshhce0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Why This Matters Sepsis-a health condition caused by an extreme response to infection in the body-can be life-threatening and requires prompt medical care. Sepsis is a leading cause of hospital admissions and deaths, and its significance has been compared to heart attacks or strokes. The Department of Defense (DOD) is responsible for providing health care to millions of beneficiaries, including care that could involve the diagnosis and treatment of sepsis. Approximately 9.4 million beneficiaries, including service members, retirees, and their dependents, are eligible to receive health services through DOD. DOD's Defense Health Agency (DHA) provides these health services through DHA-operated military medical treatment facilities (referred to as the direct care system). DHA also pays for health services provided to beneficiaries through networks of civilian providers that are administered under contract (referred to as the private sector care system). 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 DOD. (H. Rpt. No. 118-125 at 212 (June 30, 2023) accompanying Pub. L. No. 118-31, 137 Stat. 136 (2023).) This report describes admissions involving sepsis at military medical treatment facilities and sepsis management efforts within DHA, including what entities focus on sepsis, what information is tracked, and selected military medical treatment facility experiences with sepsis diagnosis and treatment. Key Takeaways • DHA data show 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 and accounted for approximately 1 percent of total inpatient admissions. DHA formed a Sepsis Working Group in 2021 to standardize efforts related to sepsis detection, diagnosis, and treatment. In February 2025, DHA released a policy memorandum on this condition developed by the Sepsis Working Group. DHA tracks information on four sepsis-related quality measures. Military medical treatment facilities generally performed comparable to, or better than, the benchmark rates for all hospitals applicable to calendar year 2023. Staff we interviewed at military medical treatment facilities did not report experiencing any major challenges specific to sepsis diagnosis and treatment. Page 1 GAO-25-107357 DOD Sepsis Page 1 GAO-25-107357 DOD Sepsis

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