Mortality from severe sepsis remains unacceptably high at around 30–50%.¹ Globally about 1400 people die each day from sepsis-related illness. The Surviving Sepsis Campaign was introduced in an attempt to improve the diagnosis and management of severe sepsis. Its aims include a commitment to reduce global mortality from severe sepsis by 25% within 5 years (www.survivingsepsis.com). One method of achieving this mortality reduction is by the local implementation of the sepsis-care bundle, a series of evidence-based interventions shown to improve outcome in patients with sepsis.²

We recently began a pilot campaign to implement the sepsis-care bundles in accident and emergency departments. We devised …