Reduction in time to first action as a result of electronic alerts for early sepsis recognition.
The use of an electronic alerting system to notify practitioners when a patient meets modified systemic inflammatory response syndrome criteria was hypothesized to decrease the time to goal-directed therapy initiation. This retrospective, before-and-after study analyzed adult patients identified with sepsis or septic shock and compared 30 patients prior to electronic alert initiation with 30 patients after initiation. The primary endpoint was time to any sepsis-related intervention. Patients in the post-alert group demonstrated a shorter time to any sepsis-related intervention by a median difference of 3.5 hours (P = .02). Using computerized medical records to create an electronic alerting system has the potential to identify high-risk patients and initiate interventions sooner. At our institution, the creation of an alerting system with real-time data has decreased the time it takes to begin sepsis workup and treatment.
Department of Pharmacy Services, Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Richmond (Dr Kurczewski); and West Virginia University Hospitals, Morgantown (Drs Sweet, McKnight, and Halbritter).
Lisa
L
Kurczewski
Michael
M
Sweet
Richard
R
McKnight
Kevin
K
Halbritter
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D008297:Male; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012772:Shock, Septic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult