Sepsis in emergency medicine toolkit

Recommendation

• Whenever possible, work with the information technology team and the electronic health record (EHR) vendor to incorporate sepsis screening and treatment tools into the EHR.

Rationale

• Tools in the electronic health record can help to identify patients who may have early signs of sepsis.
• Tools in the electronic health record can help provide guidance regarding standardized treatment for patients.
• EHR can be used to automate important follow-up tests.

Tools

• Sepsis electronic best practice alerts criteria
• Sepsis toolkit (for MEDITECH users only)

Best practices

• Electronic screening tool helps identify sepsis early (Anna Jaques Hospital, Newburyport)
• Implementing “smart” electronic alerts for sepsis identification (University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center, Worcester)
• Surveillance tool helps hospitals in rapid detection of sepsis (Lowell General Hospital, Lowell)
• Using electronic systems to detect and treat sepsis (Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital, Brockton)