Rapid sepsis test enables hospital to reduce mortality and shorten hospital stay
Froedtert Hospital results reinforce growing real-world evidence that IntelliSep is a transformative tool for suspected infections in emergency departments
29 Dec 2025
A new study1 from Froedtert Hospital, an academic medical center in Milwaukee, shows that patients with suspected infection who received the IntelliSep® rapid sepsis test from Cytovale had 42% lower mortality and spent nearly two fewer days in the hospital compared with those who were not tested.
These findings are consistent with previously published peer-reviewed evidence performed at multiple health systems across diverse emergency department (ED) settings, highlighting IntelliSep’s ability to aid physicians in their diagnosis and improve outcomes for patients.
IntelliSep provides clinicians with an objective measure of immune dysregulation, the core driver of sepsis. The lab test delivers results in eight minutes, enabling clinicians to rapidly risk stratify patients at triage to accelerate care for high-risk patients and avoid unnecessary interventions in lower-risk cases.
The study was performed at Froedtert Hospital, part of the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin health network and the region’s only Adult Level 1 Trauma Center. Between August 2024 and May 2025, researchers evaluated 6,040 ED patients with suspected infection.
After adjusting for baseline clinical differences through propensity matching, which mimics a randomized study, the team assessed the impact of IntelliSep on clinical decision making, comparing patients tested with IntelliSep to those who were not.
Key findings include:
Hospital length of stay (HLOS) was approximately two days shorter for those tested with IntelliSep.
- Overall HLOS was 1.9 days shorter
- Septic patients’ HLOS was 2.2 days shorter
- Non-septic patients’ HLOS was 1.7 days shorter
Mortality rates were 42% lower among patients who were tested with IntelliSep.
- Overall mortality rate was 42% lower
- Septic patients had a 35% lower mortality rate
- Non-septic patients had a 43% lower mortality rate
With these results at Froedtert Hospital, the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin health network is taking formal steps to expand adoption of IntelliSep across the health system.
IntelliSep is currently deployed across five states and has been used by hundreds of clinicians to test over 60,000 patients.
“Making the diagnosis of sepsis can be hard, especially in the emergency department where quick decisions have to be made without all of the information one might want. We believe that the IntelliSep test gives physicians more confidence in diagnosing or ruling out sepsis and can help with resource utilization,” said study author Thomas Carver, MD, FACS, Professor of Surgery and Senior Medical Director of Critical Care Services at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
“The findings on the use of IntelliSep in our ED provided real-world evidence that this test can help clinicians make more informed decisions that improve patient outcomes,” he added.
References
1. See the IHI Forum poster presentation for more details on the latest research: Impact of Host Response Sepsis Diagnostic Implementation on Length of Stay and Mortality in an Emergency Department.