Skip to Main Content

Validated Assessment Tool for Measuring Healthcare Organizations’ Readiness to Address Structural Racism in Sepsis Care

Hanifah Ouro-Sama at the Unite for Sight Global Health & Innovation Conference 2025

Sepsis, a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated response to infection, affects nearly 2 million patients in the U.S. each year. It is one of the leading causes of mortality, responsible for approximately 270,000 deaths annually, and adds $62 billion to US healthcare costs every year.
Despite medical advancements, substantial racial disparities exist in sepsis care and outcomes. Black and Hispanic populations have a higher incidence of severe sepsis, higher rates of deviations from standard care, and complications compared to Non-Hispanic White populations. Despite overwhelming evidence that structural racism plays a critical role in driving sepsis inequities, there are no proven, evidence-based, prospective interventions to reverse this injustice. Our study, Champions Advancing Racial Equity in Sepsis (CARES), is changing that.

As part of the CARES study, we have developed a novel validated survey tool to assess domains of organizational culture hypothesized to be prerequisites for anti-racist work in sepsis care. This tool was presented at the Unite for Sight Global Health & Innovation Conference 2025.

Interested in learning more? Check out these resources: