Electronic Screening Could Lower Risk of Hospital Sepsis Deaths, Study Finds

About 300,000 patients each year will die of sepsis infections they likely acquired at the hospital where they were treated, according to the CDC.

Hospitals that used electronic screening to detect sepsis in patients reported fewer deaths from the serious infection, than facilities that use more traditional techniques, according to the findings of a new study.

Sepsis is a life-threatening infection that damages the body’s immune system and shuts down the organs. It can progress quickly and carries a high risk of death if not promptly detected and treated.

Hospitalization increases the likelihood that patients will come into contact with bacteria that can cause infections such as sepsis, which occurs in roughly one-quarter of patients who are admitted to a hospital.

In findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on December 10, researchers from Saudi Arabia conducted a randomized trial of 29,442 patients in 45 wards in five hospitals in Saudi Arabia who underwent electronic monitoring. The team, led by Dr. Yasmeen M. Arabi, compared those patients to 30,613 patients who didn’t have electronic monitoring.

Electronic screening utilizes a system that automatically looks for key indicators of sepsis by the infection’s effect on the patient’s vital statistics. It monitors for “red flags” such as low blood pressure, high blood pressure and fever, and then issues an alert to healthcare providers, as well as alerts to ensure the patient receives timely treatments, medications, lab testing and other crucial attention.

Patients in the screening group who were subject to an electronic screening alert had a lower death rate within 90 days of hospitalization than those in the non-electronically screened group, the data indicates. This is regardless of whether the alert was for warning signs of sepsis, or to remind healthcare providers of needed medical procedures, the researchers determined.

Within 12 hours of the alert, patients in the electronic screening group were more likely to have necessary lab tests and other medical attention, like serum lactate tested and IV fluid ordered, compared to the non-screening group. Patients in the electronic screening group were also able to reduce or stop taking drugs that increased blood pressure, for those with dangerously low blood pressure.

Electronic screening patients also had lower rates of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections that are especially hard to treat, the findings indicate.

However, researchers did note that patients in the screening group underwent more “code blue” calls, needed more kidney replacement therapy, and had higher rates of clostridium difficile (C diff) infections.

Sepsis Prevention Efforts

The findings line up with previous research, published in the JAMA Network Open journal, which indicated sepsis alert systems helped reduce the risk of serious infections by 20%.

Last year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that more than 2 million Americans get sepsis every year and roughly 300,000 of those patients will die because the infection is hard to treat and can escalate quickly.

In August 2023, the CDC released new sepsis prevention guidelines designed to help hospitals and healthcare facilities reduce the risk of sepsis infections. The guidelines are designed to help hospitals implement, monitor and improve their sepsis programs, according to the agency. They call for early and rapid diagnosis of sepsis and immediate treatment.