Changing the Game: FMOL Health Continues to Change the Course of Sepsis Care

June 12, 2026

BATON ROUGE, La. – FMOL Health, a leading healthcare provider in the Southeast, continues to achieve international firsts in sepsis care. Now, FMOL Health implements their breakthrough approach to sepsis care at two critical access sites: FMOL Health | Our Lady of the Lake North Baton Rouge and FMOL Health | Our Lady of the Angels Hospital in Bogalusa, La., further highlighting the health system’s commitment to advancing placement of life-saving technology directly into historically underserved communities.

The health system is the first in the world to deploy IntelliSep, a revolutionary new diagnostic tool that transforms the detection and treatment of sepsis, a common and deadly immune response to infection, to all acute care hospitals in its network. Our Lady of the Lake North Baton Rouge Emergency Department is now the first freestanding emergency department in the world to implement the diagnostic test.

IntelliSep, developed by Cytovale in close collaboration with FMOL Health and Louisiana State University (LSU), is a transformative, yet simple and easy-to-use, new technology that can detect sepsis in under 10 minutes.

“Innovation in healthcare is not just about adopting new technologies; it's about transforming patient care and outcomes,” says Christopher Thomas, MD, FMOL Health vice president and chief quality officer and associate professor of medicine at LSU Health Sciences Center.  “Our goal is to save lives and create more dinner table conversations for every family and patient that trusts us with their care.”

Following 10 years of rigorous clinical studies and FDA clearance in January 2023, FMOL Health began implementing IntelliSep at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge. Implementation led to a system redesign and realignment: new workflows, new metrics and a new approach to testing and monitoring, including testing upon admission to the emergency room. It also yielded dramatic results. FMOL Health embarked on a full systemwide rollout one year later.

Over the last two years, FMOL Health has treated over 50,000 patients across Louisiana and Mississippi who were determined to be at high risk for sepsis upon evaluation in the emergency room and achieved the following results:

• A 24% reduction in mortality among patients with sepsis
• A 19% reduction in mortality among patients without sepsis
• A 14% decrease in antibiotic utilization
• A 12% increase in safe discharges from the emergency department

Moreover, Dr. Thomas estimates the IntelliSep technology has saved roughly 30,000 hospital days across the FMOL Health system, an efficiency gain equivalent to standing up an additional 85-bed hospital. The tool helps ease burden on emergency rooms and widens access by freeing up beds quickly. A swift decision on sepsis also cuts down on unnecessary prescriptions and frees physicians to explore other diagnostic possibilities.

The health system’s transformational approach to sepsis care is now used in nearly all its emergency rooms across its four markets in Louisiana and Mississippi. Systemwide rollout is slated for completion in September, with implementation at FMOL Health | Our Lady of the Lake Livingston in Walker, La.

Implementation this month at Our Lady of the Lake North Baton Rouge and Our Lady of the Angels Hospital further extends exciting outcomes to under-resourced and high-needs rural populations.

“FMOL Health is the first health system to deploy IntelliSep across their entire network, and their outcomes are helping define what best-in-class sepsis care looks like,” said Cytovale CEO Ajay Shah. “Standardizing access across communities and clinical settings, now including freestanding emergency departments, ensures that every patient presenting with suspected infection quickly gets the tailored care they need.”

In a recent episode of FMOL Health’s Straight from the Source podcast, Dr. Thomas and Hollis “Bud” O’Neal, MD, FMOL Health | Our Lady of the Lake medical director of research, share the story behind IntelliSep and the system-wide transformation in how sepsis is identified and treated across FMOL Health. LISTEN HERE.