News: Study shows electronic alerts help reduce missed pediatric sepsis diagnoses

Researchers studying ED visits at a freestanding academic children’s hospital from June 1, 2013, to May 31, 2015, found that electronic alerts help reduce missed pediatric sepsis diagnoses by 76%, HealthLeaders Media reported. The study and accompanying editorial were published in Annals of Emergency Medicine.

Researchers built a two-stage alert in the facility’s electronic health record (EHR) system. When a provider documents an age-based elevated heart rate or hypotensive blood pressure in the EHR during the ED visit, it triggers the first-stage alert.

If the patient also has a fever or infection risk, the first alert triggers a series of questions about underlying high-risk conditions, perfusion, and mental status. If the answer is yes to any of the questions, a second-stage alert triggers, reported HealthLeaders Media.

If both the first and second stage alerts are positive, then they trigger a “sepsis huddle,” which entails a patient focused evaluation and discussion with the whole treatment team.

“Sepsis is a killer and notoriously difficult to identify accurately in children, which is why this alert is so promising,” said study author Fran Balamuth, MD, PhD, MSCE, of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, in a statement.

Editor’s note: To read the entire study and editorial, click here. To read HealthLeaders Media’s coverage of the study, click here. To register for an upcoming webinar about sepsis documentation and identification, click here.