STAG STEPSIS AUDIT

Data was collected between March - May 2009 and the final report was published in November 2010

WHAT IS Sepsis?

Sepsis can affect a person of any age and is
A serious condition. It occurs when the body’s normal reaction to inflammation or a bacterial infection goes into overdrive.

The terms blood poisoning, septicaemia and
septic shock are often used to refer to sepsis.

The incidence of sepsis is rising and is the leading cause of death in the ICU. 200,000 cases of sepsis occur every year in the UK alone and 1,400 people worldwide die of sepsis every day

Severe sepsis can increase mortality by up to 50%

Key Findings & recommendations of the Sepsis Audit:

The annual incidence of signs of sepsis within two days of attendance at participating hospitals was around 21,000 patients.

The lack of standardisation of EWS charts should be addressed to enable meaningful comparison between units.

Systolic blood pressure was noted to be deranged in only 10% of patients at the point of inclusion in the audit. Clinical reliance on the development of hypotension prior to the consideration of potential sepsis may delay diagnosis and treatment, and, potentially worsen the outcome for patients.

Overall, 34% (1325) of patients with sepsis met the criteria for severe sepsis within two days of initial attendance. Of these patients 48% (637) met the criteria before leaving the ED. Reinforcement of good practice in aspects of illness recognition, fluid resuscitation, antibiotic administration, prior blood cultures, critical care assessment and resuscitation bundle compliance in the ED is likely to improve the outcome for patients with severe sepsis.

The overall mortality for patients who met the criteria for sepsis within two days of initial attendance was 14%. For patients who met the criteria for severe sepsis within two days of initial attendance mortality was 24%.