Challenges and Opportunities for Emergency Department Sepsis Screening at Triage.

Feasibility of ED triage sepsis screening, before diagnostic testing has been performed, has not been established. In a retrospective, outcome-blinded chart review of a one-year cohort of ED adult septic shock patients ("derivation cohort") and three additional, non-consecutive months of all adult ED visits ("validation cohort"), we evaluated the qSOFA score, the Shock Precautions on Triage (SPoT) vital-signs criterion, and a triage concern-for-infection (tCFI) criterion based on risk factors and symptoms, to screen for sepsis. There were 19,670 ED patients in the validation cohort; 50 developed ED septic shock, of whom 60% presented without triage hypotension, and 56% presented with non-specific symptoms.

Presenting Symptoms Independently Predict Mortality in Septic Shock: Importance of a Previously Unmeasured Confounder.

Objectives: Presenting symptoms in patients with sepsis may influence rapidity of diagnosis, time-to-antibiotics, and outcome. We tested the hypothesis that vague presenting symptoms are associated with delayed antibiotics and increased mortality. We further characterized individual presenting symptoms and their association with mortality.

Classification models to predict vasopressor administration for septic shock in the emergency department.

Optimal management of sepsis and septic shock in the emergency department (ED) involves timely decisions related to intravenous fluid resuscitation and initiation of vasoactive medication support. A decision-support tool trained on electronic health record data, can help improve this complex decision. We retrospectively extracted vital signs, lab measurements, and fluid administration information from 807 patient visits over a two-year period to a major ED.