Severe sepsis and septic shock are common, expensive and often fatal medical problems. The care of the critically sick and injured often begins in the prehospital setting; there is limited data available related to predictors and interventions specific to sepsis in the prehospital arena. The objective of this study was to assess the predictive effect of physiologic elements commonly reported in the out-of-hospital setting in the outcomes of patients transported with sepsis.

This was a cross-sectional descriptive study. Data from the years 2004-2006 were collected. Adult cases (≥18 years of age) transported by Emergency Medical Services to a major academic center with the diagnosis of sepsis as defined by ICD-9-CM diagnostic codes were included. Descriptive statistics and standard deviations were used to present group characteristics. Chi-square was used for statistical significance and odds ratio (OR) to assess strength of association. Statistical significance was set at the .05 level. Physiologic variables studied included mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR) and shock index (SI).

Sixty-three (63) patients were included. Outcome variables included a mean hospital length of stay (HLOS) of 13.75 days (SD = 9.97), mean ventilator days of 4.93 (SD = 7.87), in-hospital mortality of 22 out of 63 (34.9%), and mean intensive care unit length-of-stay (ICU-LOS) of 7.02 days (SD = 7.98). Although SI and RR were found to predict intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, [OR 5.96 (CI, 1.49-25.78; P = .003) and OR 4.81 (CI, 1.16-21.01; P = .0116), respectively] none of the studied variables were found to predict mortality (MAP <65 mmHg: P = .39; HR >90: P = .60; RR >20 P = .11; SI >0.7 P = .35).

This study demonstrated that the out-of-hospital shock index and respiratory rate have high predictability for ICU admission. Further studies should include the development of an out-of-hospital sepsis score.

BaezAA, HanudelP, WilcoxSR. The Prehospital Sepsis Project: Out-of-Hospital Physiologic Predictors of Sepsis Outcomes. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2013;28(6):1-4.

We sought to determine whether the implementation of a sepsis protocol in a Canadian emergency department (ED) improves care for the subset of patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU).

After implementing a sepsis protocol in our ED we used an ICU database and chart review to compare various time-dependent end points and outcomes between a historical control year and the first year after implementation. We reviewed the charts of all patients admitted to the ICU within 24 hours of ED admission with a primary or other diagnosis of sepsis, severe sepsis or septic shock, who met criteria for early goal-directed therapy within the first 6 hours of their ED stay.

We compared 29 patients from the control year with 30 patients from the year after implementation of our sepsis protocol. We found that patients treated during the postintervention year had improvements in time to antibiotics (4.2 v. 1.0 h, difference = –3.2 h, 95% CI –4.8 to –2.0), time to central line placement (above the diaphragm) (11.6 v. 3.2 h, difference = –8.4 h, 95% CI –12.1 to –4.7), time to arterial line placement (7.5 v. 2.3 h, difference = –5.2 h, 95% CI –7.4 to –3.0), and achievement of central venous pressure and central venous oxygen saturation goals (11.1 v. 5.1 h, difference = –6.0 h, 95% CI –11.03 to –1.71, and 13.1 v. 5.5 h, difference = –7.6 h, 95% CI –11.97 to –3.16, respectively). There were no statistically significant differences in ICU length of stay, hospital length of stay or mortality (31.0% v. 20.0%, difference = –11.0%, 95% CI –33.1% to 11.1%).

Implementation of an ED sepsis protocol improves care for patients with severe sepsis and septic shock.