The estimated annual cost of treating patients with sepsis is approximately $20 billion in the United States, making sepsis the costliest medical condition in this country. Each year, an estimated 750,000 people die from sepsis in the U.S. But according to an article in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, a hospital in Huntsville, Alabama, has been able to reduce sepsis-related deaths by 53% through a program focused on staff education and an electronic surveillance system.