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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released guidelines to help hospitals create more effective sepsis management teams and improve patient survival rates. The agency's seven "Sepsis Core Elements," announced Thursday, come as sepsis cases continue to rise and industry leaders call for better surveillance systems, diagnostic tools and education surrounding the life-threatening condition. (Devereaux, 8/24)

In a typical year, at least 1.7 million adults in the US develop sepsis, and at least 350,000 die in the hospital or are moved into hospice care, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On top of that, about a third people who die in a hospital in the US have sepsis during that hospitalization, the agency says. (Musa, 8/24)

On a Wednesday afternoon in 2012, 12-year-old Rory Staunton got a scrape during a middle-school basketball game. His gym teacher applied two Band-Aids to the cuts on his arm. By Thursday, Rory had a 104-degree fever, vomiting and leg pain, but the emergency room staff at NYU Langone Health suspected dehydration and gave him fluids and anti-nausea medicine. By Friday, the boy was critically ill. By Sunday, he was dead. Hospital records show the cause was severe septic shock. More than a decade later, Rory’s mother, Orlaith Staunton, believes that change may finally be coming, that there may fewer tragedies like this one in the future. (Baumgaertner, 8/24)