Evaluation of a novel approach to recognising community-acquired paediatric sepsis at ED triage by combining an electronic screening algorithm with clinician assessment (2019)

Summary

Gomes et al. report the utilisation and impact of a novel triage-based electronic screening tool (eST) combined with clinical assessment to recognise sepsis in paediatric emergency department.

An electronic sepsis screening tool was implemented in the paediatric emergency departments of two large UK secondary care hospitals between June 2018 and January 2019. Patients eligible for screening were children < 16 years of ages excluding those with minor injuries or who were brought directly to resuscitation. 

Utilisation of a novel triage-based eST allowed sepsis screening in over 99% of eligible patients. The screening tool showed good accuracy to recognise sepsis at triage in the ED, which was augmented further by combining it with clinician assessment. The screening tool requires further refinement through multicentre evaluation to avoid missing sepsis cases.