Sepsis Behind 1 in 5 U.S. Pediatric Hospital Deaths

New national study finds sepsis occurs in about 1 in every 75 pediatric hospitalizations and more than 1 in 10 children with sepsis die during hospitalization.

Mar. 23, 2026 at 5:36am

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A new national study published in JAMA found that nearly 1 in 5 pediatric hospital deaths in the United States involve sepsis. The study, led by researchers from the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and Nemours Children's Hospital, Delaware, also found that sepsis occurs in about 1 in every 75 pediatric hospitalizations and that more than 1 in 10 children with sepsis die during hospitalization.

Why it matters

Sepsis remains one of the leading causes of serious illness and death among children. Having a reliable way to measure pediatric sepsis across hospitals using criteria aligned with consensus clinical and research definitions is an essential step toward improving care, guiding prevention and policy efforts, and ultimately saving lives.

The details

The study, "National Estimates of Pediatric Sepsis in US Hospitals Using Clinical Data," developed a new surveillance definition called Pediatric Sepsis Event (PSE) that uses objective clinical data from electronic health records to generate consistent estimates of pediatric sepsis across hospitals nationwide. Researchers analyzed 3.9 million pediatric hospitalizations from 2016 through 2023 across hundreds of hospitals and health systems and found that sepsis occurred in 1.3% of pediatric hospitalizations, more than 1 in 10 children with sepsis died during hospitalization, and nearly 1 in 5 pediatric hospital deaths involved sepsis.

  • The study was published on March 22, 2026.
  • The data analyzed covered the period from 2016 through 2023.

The players

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute

The Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute's Department of Population Medicine conducted the research for this study.

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Researchers from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia contributed to the study.

Nemours Children's Hospital, Delaware

Researchers from Nemours Children's Hospital, Delaware, also contributed to the study.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

The research was supported by funding from the CDC.

Chanu Rhee, MD, MPH

Harvard Medical School associate professor at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute and one of the two lead authors of the study.

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What they’re saying

“Improving outcomes starts with measuring the problem accurately. By building a standardized national surveillance framework based on objective clinical data, we can now reliably track how often pediatric sepsis occurs and how many children are affected, creating a stronger foundation for prevention and improvement.”

— Chanu Rhee, Harvard Medical School associate professor at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute

“Sepsis remains one of the leading causes of serious illness and death among children. Having a reliable way to measure pediatric sepsis across hospitals using criteria aligned with consensus clinical and research definitions is an essential step toward improving care, guiding prevention and policy efforts, and ultimately saving lives.”

— Scott Weiss, Division chief of critical care medicine at Nemours Children's Hospital

What’s next

The study provides the first standardized national estimates of pediatric sepsis based on clinical data from U.S. hospitals and establishes a scalable framework for tracking pediatric sepsis across health systems, which will be important for guiding future prevention and policy efforts.

The takeaway

This study highlights the significant burden of sepsis on pediatric health in the United States, with sepsis contributing to nearly 1 in 5 pediatric hospital deaths. The new Pediatric Sepsis Event surveillance definition developed by the researchers provides a reliable way to measure the problem and track progress, which is a critical first step toward improving outcomes for children with this life-threatening condition.