Comparison of QSOFA score and SIRS criteria as screening mechanisms for emergency department sepsis.

Objectives: The Quick Sequential [Sepsis-related] Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA) score has been shown to accurately predict mortality in septic patients and is part of recently proposed diagnostic criteria for sepsis. We sought to ascertain the sensitive of the score in diagnosing sepsis, as well as the diagnostic timeliness of the score when compared to traditional systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) criteria in a population of emergency department (ED) patients treated in the ED, admitted, and subsequently discharged with a diagnosis of sepsis.

Methods: Electronic health records of 200 patients who were treated for suspected sepsis in our ED and ultimately discharged from our hospital with a diagnosis of sepsis were randomly selected for review from a population of adult ED patients (N=1880).