In a letter sent to hospitals participating in the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) Program, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) says it is suspending data collection for the Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock: Management Bundle measure (NQF #0500) until further notice.

The move comes in response to changes in the perceived value of one aspect of the management bundle measure — the requirement that if severe sepsis patients do not respond to the administration of fluids or vasopressors to raise arterial blood pressure, then the physician should measure central venous pressure and oxygen levels, a step that requires the insertion of a central line. Newer research has cast doubt on the value of taking such measures because in the studies, it did not correlate with an improvement in mortality. Without a strong evidence-based justification for taking the measure, the infection risk created by a central line could mean that for many patients, the measure may do more harm than good.

In June, the American Hospital Association urged CMS to work with it on revisiting the measure so it did not penalize hospitals that followed the latest research and took the less invasive path in treating sepsis patients who do not respond to treatment with fluids or vasopressors to raise blood pressure.

The National Quality Foundation is currently finishing up review of research and stakeholder input, and is expected to issue final recommendations soon.

“Given forthcoming research and NQF’s recommendations, with potential changes to the measure, CMS will delay data collection for the measure until further notice,” CMS wrote to the hospitals.

The delay will not affect the data collection period for other Hospital IQR Program measures.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, each year, severe sepsis strikes more than a million Americans. Of these, somewhere between 28 and 50 percent may die, making sepsis a leading killer.