Requires hospitals to establish sepsis recognition and treatment protocols.

This New Jersey bill (S 1151) requires all general and special hospitals to create and implement evidence-based protocols for early sepsis recognition and treatment. The protocols must cover both adult and pediatric patients, include screening processes, specific treatment guidelines with timeframes, infection source identification, and procedures for excluding inappropriate cases (like patients in palliative care). Hospitals must train relevant staff, submit protocols to the Department of Health for approval within 120 days of enactment, and annually report sepsis-related data for quality improvement and mortality rate tracking. The law aims to standardize care for sepsis - a leading cause of death in New Jersey - by ensuring hospitals follow current medical standards.