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The Surviving Sepsis Guidelines emphasize that early goal-directed therapy and appropriate antibiotics reduce mortality, but how are we doing? Investigators analyzed data from 1994 to 2009 from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey for adult emergency department (ED) patients with sepsis. Data were analyzed using two definitions of sepsis diagnosis: “explicit” (made by the clinician during the visit) and “implicit” (inferred from presence of codes indicating infection and organ dysfunction).
The number of visits remained stable over the 16-year period, at 260,000 per year (1.23 per 1000 population) for “explicit” diagnosis, but increased by 0.07 per 1000 population every 2 years for “implicit” diagnosis. Overall, antibiotics w…