You are here

  • Home
  • Archive
  • Volume 24, Issue 6
  • Management of severe sepsis and septic shock in the emergency department: a survey of current practice in emergency departments in England

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Short report
Management of severe sepsis and septic shock in the emergency department: a survey of current practice in emergency departments in England
  1. Narani Sivayoham
  1. Correspondence to:
 Dr N Sivayoham
 Emergency Department, St George’s Hospital, Blackshaw Road, London SW17 0QT, UK;narani.sivayoham{at}stgeorges.nhs.uk

Abstract

Aim: To identify the extent to which emergency departments (EDs) in England are involved in the initiation of the pathway to early goal-directed therapy (EGDT) in patients with severe sepsis and septic shock.

Method: A survey of 173 EDs in England was carried out over a 2-month period starting in March 2006.

Results: 117 (67.6%) departments responded. 22 (18.8%) departments satisfied the following criteria: had a strategy to identify these patients, measured lactate, had a written protocol including EGDT and provided training for their staff. A further 10 (8.5%) EDs were working on initiating the pathway to EGDT.

Conclusion: 18.8% of EDs in England are able to initiate the pathway to EGDT in patients with severe sepsis and septic shock.

  • ED, emergency department
  • EGDT, early goal-directed therapy

https://doi.org/10.1136/emj.2007.046060

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Competing interests: None.

    Linked Articles

    • Primary survey
      Primary survey
      Kevin Mackway-Jones
      Emergency Medicine Journal 2007; 24 383-384 Published Online First: 18 May 2007.