INDIANAPOLIS (AP): The Indiana Hospital Association’s Patient Safety Center is working to reduce the annual number of deaths from sepsis.

Sepsis occurs when the body releases chemicals into the bloodstream in an effort to fight off infection, but the process spurs an inflammatory response that can lead to potentially deadly complications, such as organ failure and tissue damage.

The Indianapolis Star reports that the center in 2008 started tracking the percentage of people diagnosed with sepsis who die from it amid concerns about the high death rate.

More than 15 percent of people admitted to hospitals in Indiana with sepsis in 2008 died from the condition. The rate dipped to about 6 percent in 2015.

Sepsis kills more than 258,000 people in the U.S. each year.