Better sepsis diagnostic tests fail to save lives in community hospitals not because the science is bad, but because understaffed emergency rooms don't suspect sepsis quickly enough to act on the test results in time.
Fred explains that sepsis tests that work great in academic medical centers fail in community hospitals because overwhelmed staff don't suspect sepsis in time, meaning a better test alone doesn't help if no one runs it.
transcript
Fred Turner: What's happening in a community hospital is they're so understaffed, they're so overwhelmed with the volume, particularly in the emergency room, they don't suspect sepsis fast enough and as I said earlier, it's every hour is 12% increase in mortality... it doesn't matter if you have a better test if no one ever runs it.