While Medicare inpatient procedure volume has remained flat since 2013, infections are a significant area of high volume change. The treemap below from the Inpatient Procedure Analysis Interactive shows the inpatient volume growth by procedure with color coding by volume change from 2013-2015 using the Medicare Provider and Analysis Review (MedPAR) file. The size of the data square indicates the relative number of procedures while the dark blue color indicates the highest growth.
Septicemia or Severe Sepsis with major complications provided both the highest number of procedures at 633,593 or about 6% of all inpatient procedures AND the highest volume growth at 33%. Further, other infections and infectious diseases have exhibited high inpatient volume growth.
Reasons for the rise in Septicemia or Severe Sepsis procedures vary. According to the Washington Post, this increase may be related to several causes, including an increase in the number of invasive surgeries, the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria, and those who have compromised immune systems such as people with AIDS or those receiving chemotherapy.
