Sepsis in emergency medicine toolkit

Recommendations

• Develop hospital-specific antibiotic guidelines for use in treating patients with sepsis.
• Establish a mechanism for reevaluating a patient’s antibiotic treatment and provide guidance regarding reassessment and de-escalation of antibiotic treatment when appropriate.

Rationale

• Timely and appropriate use of antibiotics is an essential element of treating sepsis.
• Implementing an antimicrobial stewardship program is essential to prevent the inappropriate use of antibiotics.

Tools

• Example of adult sepsis empiric antibiotic guidelines
• Empiric antimicrobial treatment recommendations for pediatric severe sepsis
• Example of code sepsis ABX pocket card
• Sepsis: Empiric antibiotic selection pathway

Best practices

• Pharmacy team helps improve process and align response to sepsis care (Southcoast Health, New Bedford)