Sepsis was defined to be an infection-related complication that affects 1.5 million people in the United States. Luckily, a group of researchers discovered that speeding up the treatment process and completing required protocols could save lives.
According to Futurity, researchers from the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine analyzed data gathered from 50,000 patients from 149 New York hospitals. Treatment protocols and thorough reports needed were then briefly studied by the team.
The study published in the New England Journal of Medicine then discovered that in some of the hospitals, a well-known antisepsis protocol is known to be the “three-hour bundle” was missed. The minutes for the protocol was deemed important because not being able to complete it would result in an increased 3 to 4 percent of the mortality rate in hospitals.
“Some question the benefit of rapid treatment with protocols, saying they can have unintended side effects and be a distraction in busy emergency departments,” study lead author Christopher W. Seymour, assistant professor of critical care medicine and emergency medicine at the University of Pittsburgh stated. He then concluded that “faster is better” when it comes to sepsis care.
Aside from that, Fierce Health Care reported that a separate study shown last Sunday at the 2017 American Thoracic Society International Conference supports the idea of faster is better regarding sepsis treatment. The study discussed the effects of giving immediate antibiotics in patients experiencing sepsis.
The research involved 945 patient records which have been subjected to intensive care units between July 2013 and December 2015. The team lead by Ithan Peltan, M.D., of the Intermountain Medical Center and the University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City then noted that a 10 percent risk of a patient dying is decreased once a one hour delay in giving patients antibiotics would be made.
Giving antibiotics immediately to sepsis patients was mentioned to be done commonly in overcrowded emergency departments. Peltan then concluded that adequate staff, diagnostic resources and considering sepsis care reorganization are needed by hospitals to ensure proper sepsis treatment.
