Estimate of the economic impact of implementing an in hospital protocol for the early detection and treatment of severe sepsis in public and private hospitals in southern Brazil

To analyze the economic impact of an early sepsis detection protocol in two general hospitals. We analyzed data collected from a prospective study of septic patients before and after the implementation of a protocol for early diagnosis of severe sepsis. We conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis comparing: mortality rate, cost of sepsis treatment and indirect costs attributed to years of productive life lost to premature death in both phases. Two hundred seventeen patients were included, 102 in phase I and 115 in phase II. After protocol implementation, in private and public hospital, mortality rates decreased from 50% to 32.2% and from 67.6% to 41% (p < 0.05). The mean years of productive life lost due to sepsis decreased from 3.18 to 0.80 and 9.81 to 4.65 (p < 0.05), with a mean gain of 2.38 and 5.16 years of productive life, for each septic patient. Considering Brazilian gross domestic product per capita, estimated productivity loss due to sepsis decreased between 3.2 and 9.7 billion US dollars, varying based on the incidence of sepsis. Hospital costs were similar in both phases. A protocol for early detection and treatment of in-hospital septic patients is highly cost-effective from a societal perspective.