An Educational Campaign Combined with an Electronic Alert Improved Sepsis Process Measures

Electronic alerts from electronic medical records systems have obvious promise but can be a hassle (NEJM JW Emerg Med Dec 2015 and Ann Emerg Med 2015; [e-pub]). Investigators compared sepsis process and outcome measures before (111 patients) and after (103 patients) an emergency department intervention that involved an educational campaign and a new pop-up alert in the hospital's Epic electronic medical record system.

An alert was triggered when a patient met two or more systemic inflammatory response syndrome criteria, and another was triggered if criteria for severe sepsis or septic shock were met (end-organ dysfunction or fluid nonresponsive hypotension). The alert recommended serum lactate testing, obtaining blood cultures before antibio…