Utilization of electronic order sets based on the Center for Disease Control’s Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines in a community hospital

Abstract

Specific Aims To evaluate the impact of providers’ adherence to selecting order sets based on the Center for Disease Control’s Surviving Sepsis Campaign (CSSC) guidelines when treating sepsis at a community hospital, while secondarily exploring outcomes of this population, including in-hospital mortality and length of stay. Methods This was a retrospective, single-center study. Patients were included if they were 18 years and older with a diagnosis of sepsis at any time during their admission between August 2014 and December 2016. Use of CSSC guideline-based electronic order sets, age, gender, hospital length of stay, and in-hospital all-cause mortality were collected from the electronic health record. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Main Results A total of 451 patients diagnosed with sepsis at any time during their hospitalization between August 2014 and December 2016 were identified. All patients met the inclusion criteria. Of the 451 admissions, 32.1% were treated based on the CSSC guideline-based electronic order sets. Of the overall study sample, 9% expired during hospitalization and the average hospital length of stay for the entire study population was 5.8 ± 4.8 days. Conclusions During the 28-month study, prescribers adhered to the CSSC guideline-based electronic order sets in less than one-third of the identified sepsis cases, prompting a need for further exploration into the reasons for lack of use and possible re-education of providers on the availability of these order sets.