Reducing Sepsis Diagnosis Delays
Sepsis is a life-threatening condition. Untreated, it can prove fatal within hours or days. Delayed diagnosis and treatment mean that the patient has a smaller chance of survival and a greater chance of significant long-term impact. Sepsis can cause the loss of hands, feet or a limb. It can leave the patient blind.
In the long-term, a sepsis survivor can suffer from post-sepsis syndrome, experiencing fatigue, lack of concentration, anxiety, breathlessness and reduced kidney function among many other debilitating and depressing symptoms.
Diagnosis and treatment of sepsis is required as a matter of emergency, especially in those patient groups which are more susceptible to this horrific illness.
The elderly and the very young are particularly vulnerable to sepsis, with premature babies being at a very high risk. It is estimated that 30 - 40% of premature babies die from sepsis.
NICE Guidelines
The NICE guidelines on the diagnosis and management of sepsis begin with the recommendation to medical practitioners to ask themselves the question: 'could this be sepsis?' A willingness to consider this possibility and to refer their patient for immediate investigation and treatment could be crucial to the patient's survival.
The guidelines continue to make a number of recommendations for the assessment of adults and young people.
- Medical professionals should consider if the patient is from a high-risk group such as being under one year old or over 75 years old, being a pregnant woman, someone with a weakened immune system, or someone who has recently had surgery.
- If sepsis is suspected, the medical practitioner should assess the patient's temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation and level of consciousness or mental state. This should facilitate a judgement of whether or not the patient is at a high, medium or low risk of sepsis.
Patients with a fast breathing rate, an altered mental state, a high heart rate, low blood pressure and pale pallor may be at high risk of sepsis.
NHS England recmommends the use of the National Early Warning Score for adults in acute care as a common method for the assessment and communication of the extent of a patient's sepsis threat. The assessment criteria mentioned above are given a score depending on the severity of the patient's symptoms and, in combination, create a picture of the risk to the patient.
International guidelines for the management of sepsis
Guidelines recommend the administration of antibiotics within one hour of recognition that the patient is suffering from sepsis. Blood tests should be taken in order to ascertain the nature of the underlying infection which has prompted the patient to develop sepsis. The sooner the underlying infection is identified, the sooner targeted antibiotics can be administered to the patient.
qSOFA Screening
qSOFA is a development of the SOFA screening system to highlight those patient's with a greater mortality risk from sepsis.
A quick screening method for patients already suspected of sepsis, qSOFA can be used outside of highly-equipped facilities as a way of identifying those patients who are at a high risk of a poor outcome.
qSOFA measures only the patient's respiratory rate, their blood pressure and their mental state.
Project Sepsis
The University of Cardiff's Project Sepsis is aiming to identify a method of speeding up the diagnosis of sepsis and identifying the underlying infection within minutes. This would enable medical professionals to ensure that the patient received prompt treatment with the most suitable form of antibiotic, relevant to the infection which has prompted their sepsis.
Their research is analysing the signals from the body's immune system to detect infection rather than waiting for the results of blood tests which can take time during which the patient may be receiving untargeted treatment.
The team are hopeful that their method will be available for clinical use within five years.
Medical negligence
If a delay in diagnosing sepsis is due to a failure by medical professionals to consider the possibility of sepsis, that practitioner may be regarded as having provided substandard care.
If you or a loved one are suffering the debilitating, long-term impact of sepsis due to the deficiencies of your medical practitioner, it may be appropriate to make a claim for compensation.
A successful compensation claim can provide recompense for past and future financial losses where this applies as well as providing compensation for the patient's pain and suffering.
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