The Case for Virtual Sepsis Surveillance and Intervention

Abstract

Study Objective:To determine whether deployment of an integrated virtual sepsis surveillance program could improve time to antibiotics and mortality in a longitudinal cohort of non-present on admission (NPOA) sepsis cases.Methods:We used an uncontrolled pre- and poststudy design to compare time to antibiotics and mortality between a time-based cohort of NPOA sepsis cases separated by the deployment of a virtual sepsis surveillance program.Results:A total of 566 NPOA sepsis cases were included in this study. Three hundred and thirty-five cases compromised the preintervention arm, whereas the postintervention cohort included 231 cases. After deployment of the virtual sepsis surveillance program, median time to antibiotics improved from 92 to 59 min (p < 0.001). Mortality was reduced from 30% to 21% (p = 0.015).Conclusion:Deployment of a virtual sepsis surveillance program resulted in a decreased time to antibiotics and an overall reduction in NPOA sepsis mortality.

Keywords: non-present on admission sepsis; sepsis; sepsis bundle; telemedicine; virtual surveillance.