Stratifying Antibiotic Timing According to the Surviving Sepsis Campaign Seems Reasonable

The current (2021) Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) guidelines for managing sepsis and septic shock recommend a more-liberal timeframe from admission to initiation of antibiotic therapy that is stratified according to presence of shock and likelihood of infection. Antibiotic administration within 1 hour is mandated only for those with shock, or without shock but with high probability of infection, whereas a 3-hour timeframe is considered adequate for patients without shock but with possible infection.

A retrospective analysis of 166,556 patients admitted for suspected sepsis to 12 hospitals in the Southeastern U.S. between 2017 and 2021 sheds some light on the application of this aspect of the SSC guideline to clinical practice. As the guidel…