Treating Sepsis in the Emergency Department Is Cost-Effective

Researchers performed a cost and outcome analysis of prospectively collected data for 79 adult patients with sepsis who were treated during the year before implementation of an early goal-directed therapy (EGDT) protocol and 206 such patients who were treated during the 2 years after implementation of the protocol at an academic emergency department in North Carolina. Patients were included if they had at least two criteria of systemic inflammatory response syndrome and did not require immediate surgery. Cost analysis accounted for direct costs; overhead costs; and physician, nurse director, and staff training.

Patients in the before phase were significantly more likely to be dialysis dependent and had less-severe disease. Patients in the af…