There is increasing evidence that patients with more severe forms of sepsis require timely identification and treatment, comparable to other time sensitive diagnoses such as traumatic injuries, acute myocardial infarction, and stroke. A multi-disciplinary Emory critical care research team, led by Carmen Polito, MD, MSc and Jon Sevransky, MD, MHS, designed a study to identify factors associated with identification of sepsis among patients being transported by ambulance to a hospital, and predictors of more severe forms of sepsis.
Using data from Grady Emergency Medical Systems (EMS) and Grady Memorial Hospital, Polito’s team developed and validated a simple scoring system to identify patients transported by ambulance who are at increased risk for having sepsis. With collaborators spanning the spectrum of critical illness patient encounters such as Emergency Medicine and EMS, this initial groundbreaking work is being replicated in additional institutions and being extended to implement the scoring system to determine if we may more efficiently identify and treat these patients at their earliest encounter with the healthcare system.