The two-stage Clinical Decision Support system, a surveillance program used to monitor and reduce the risks of sepsis in hospitals, has been shown to reduce adverse sepsis-related outcomes for patients by 30 percent in a new study.
Researchers from a hospital using the CDS system reviewed the more than 16,500 hospitalizations that took place at their facility in one year. Of those hospitalizations, 1,541 non-ICU patients were suspected of having infections related to sepsis. Looking into these cases, the study authors reported the following:
• One in six of these patients had recently been discharged from the hospital and was now returning.
• Sixty-one percent of patients who first activated the alert were found to have systematic inflammatory response syndrome, an early physiologic response to infection.
• First alerts were predominantly triggered by abnormal heart and respiratory rates. This physiologic pattern was predictive of death or discharge to hospice.
• Patients whose first alert activated while in the medicine or critical care units were more likely to be discharged to hospice or die than patients who received their first alert in other locations, such as the emergency department or surgical units.
• Ninety-seven percent of patients who activated an alert were attended to by 177 providers, with three of four sepsis assessments completed within one hour of the initial alert.
• The hospital's early recognition and treatment of sepsis resulted in a 30 percent reduced risk of adverse outcomes for sepsis and severe sepsis patients, such as death or discharge to hospice.