A study into pre-alerts to North East hospitals for sepsis
Abstract
A study of sepsis patients pre-alerted into hospitals was conducted in the North East of England from October 2011 to March 2013. This study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of the introduction of a sepsis education programme, which included a sepsis screening tool, and to try and establish the number of sepsis cases encountered by paramedics in the region. The results of this study show that the number of cases pre-alerted into the hospitals increased with the introduction of the screening tool, and gave some indications as to the number of sepsis patients encountered in pre-hospital care. We interpret the increase in pre-alerts as an increased awareness of sepsis, but see little impact on the treatment delivered by paramedics. We draw some conclusions on the number of suspected cases of sepsis seen in the pre-hospital environment but without linking to hospital data are unable to give definitive figures.
Historically there has been very little published on the pre-hospital identification and care of sepsis. Herlitz et al (2012) found only 12 papers dealing with the pre-hospital care of sepsis in a search conducted in 2011. Recently there have been a growing number of articles on pre-hospital sepsis focused at paramedics (Boardman et al, 2009; Barrett and Dikken, 2011; Langley and Langley, 2012; Small, 2012) and also within the wider media (Daniels et al, 2011; Hall et al, 2011; Herlitz et al, 2012). Across the UK there are a number of initiatives being implemented to improve the pre-hospital detection and care of this group of patients. Data from a recent study in Scotland showed that the majority (88%) of patients with sepsis arrive at hospital via ambulance (Gray et al, 2013). The numbers of sepsis cases seen by paramedics are increasing, so the ability of paramedics to spot this potentially life-threatening condition and act appropriately is vital (Seymour et al, 2012; Guerra et al, 2013).
Subscribe to get full access to the Journal of Paramedic Practice
Thank you for visiting the Journal of Paramedic Practice and reading our archive of expert clinical content. If you would like to read more from the only journal dedicated to those working in emergency care, you can start your subscription today for just £48.
What's included
-
CPD Focus
-
Develop your career
-
Stay informed