Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 18–Senators Tiffany, Cegavske, Rawson, Raggio, Neal, Amodei, Care, Carlton, Coffin, Hardy, Mathews, McGinness, Nolan, O’Connell, Rhoads, Schneider, Shaffer, Titus, Townsend, Washington and Wiener

 

Joint Sponsors: Assemblymen Gustavson, Knecht, Angle, Anderson, Andonov, Claborn, Griffin, Hettrick, Horne, Manendo, Pierce, Sherer and Weber

 

FILE NUMBER..........

 

Senate Concurrent RESOLUTION—Recognizing the Health Division of the Department of Human Resources for its efforts regarding collection and reporting of information concerning sepsis.

 

    Whereas, Sepsis with acute organ dysfunction, commonly

 referred to as severe sepsis, is the leading cause of death in patients

 in noncoronary intensive care units, with mortality rates ranging

 from 28 to 50 percent or more; and

    Whereas, More than 750,000 Americans develop severe sepsis

 each year, which is an average of more than 2,000 new cases of

 severe sepsis per day solely in the United States; and

    Whereas, The blood pressure of a patient who has severe

 sepsis drops precipitously, which results in shock, and the major

 organs and systems of the patient, including, without limitation, the

 kidneys, liver, lungs and central nervous system, cease to function

 normally; and

    Whereas, A change in a patient’s mental status and

 hyperventilation may be the earliest signs of impending severe

 sepsis; and

    Whereas, The number of cases of severe sepsis is expected to

 increase because of the number of patients with compromised

 immune systems, the use of invasive medical procedures, the

 number of resistant microorganisms and the growth of the elderly

 population; and

    Whereas, There is currently only one drug that has been

 approved by the Federal Drug Administration to treat cases of

 severe sepsis; and

    Whereas, While the drug approved by the Federal Drug

 Administration improves the outcome for many patients with severe

 sepsis, the drug has been underused because of:

    1.  A lack of awareness of the existence of the drug among

 providers of health care and members of the general public; and

    2.  A failure on the part of programs of health insurance to

 reimburse the persons covered by those programs for the costs of

 the drug; and

    Whereas, The science concerning sepsis is better understood as

the medical community now realizes that sepsis is more than simple

 inflammation in response to bacterial infection and that a patient

 with severe sepsis often exhibits other symptoms in combination

 with systemic inflammation that may lead to the patient’s death;

 and

    Whereas, Despite this increased understanding, there is a lack

 of centralized information in this state concerning sepsis and severe

 sepsis; and

    Whereas, Because severe sepsis is a fairly common and, if left

 untreated, frequently fatal and expensive disease, a variety of

 educational programs is necessary to reduce the incidence of this

 disease and the number of deaths attributable to the disease in this

 state; and

    Whereas, The Health Division of the Department of Human

 Resources compiles and reports statistical information on hospital

 costs and payor sources for the treatment of cases of severe sepsis,

 and other diagnoses associated with hospitalization and discharge

 status of these patients; and

    Whereas, The Health Division has agreed to submit to the

 Governor and to the Legislature, and post on the Health Division

 website a report that includes statistical information on hospital

 costs and payor sources for the treatment of cases of severe sepsis,

 and other diagnoses associated with hospitalization and discharge

 status; and

    Whereas, To the extent possible, the Health Division has

 agreed to include in these reports data from the International

 Classification of Diseases coding, from the inpatient hospital

 discharge data as well as mortality data from the Health Division;

 and

    Whereas, The information contained in the Health Division’s

 report on sepsis is invaluable in efforts to heighten the awareness of

 severe sepsis in the medical community and will be made available

 for the purposes of research; now, therefore, be it

    Resolved by the Senate of the State of Nevada, the

 Assembly Concurring, That the members of the Nevada

 Legislature hereby recognize the Health Division of the Department

 of Human Resources for its efforts in heightening awareness and

 facilitating research concerning this increasingly fatal disease, and

 urge its continued efforts in this regard; and be it further

    Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate prepare and

 transmit a copy of this resolution to Yvonne Sylva, Administrator

 of the Health Division of the Department of Human Resources.

 

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