Does Prehospital Suspicion of Sepsis Shorten Time to Administration of Antibiotics in the Emergency Department? A Retrospective Study in One University Hospital

Abstract

Early treatment is the mainstay of sepsis therapy. We suspected that early recognition of sepsis by prehospital healthcare providers may shorten the time for antibiotic administration in the emergency department. We retrospectively evaluated all patients above 18 years of age who were diagnosed with sepsis or severe infection in our emergency department between 2018 and 2020. We recorded the suspected diagnosis at the time of presentation, the type of referring healthcare provider, and the time until initiation of antibiotic treatment. Differences between groups were calculated using the Kruskal–Wallis rank sum test. Of the 277 patients who were diagnosed with severe infection or sepsis in the emergency department, an infection was suspected in 124 (44.8%) patients, and sepsis was suspected in 31 (11.2%) patients by referring healthcare providers. Time to initiation of antibiotic treatment was shorter in patients where sepsis or infection had been suspected prior to arrival for both patients with severe infections (p = 0.022) and sepsis (p = 0.004). Given the well-described outcome benefits of early sepsis therapy, recognition of sepsis needs to be improved. Appropriate scores should be used as part of routine patient assessment to reduce the time to antibiotic administration and improve patient outcomes.