
An audit report published in May 2017 by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has shown the quality of care given to patients with severe sepsis and septic shock in emergency departments (EDs) has shown great improvement. Most EDs now have a sepsis lead (96%), a sepsis protocol (95%) and provide sepsis education (96%).
The audit measured the initiation of the Sepsis Six in 13,129 cases from 196 EDs. Improvements were seen in the use of antibiotics with 44% of patients receiving antibiotics within an hour of arrival. There was a slight improvement in giving of IV fluids from 40% to 43%. The taking of blood cultures and the measurement of lactate in the first hour have both improved, up from 40% to 45% and 49% to 60% respectively. Documentation of urine output measurement remains poor at only 18%.
The RCEM report also makes a number of recommendations for sepsis leads to consider. For the full report please click the link.