21.11.19
Digital sepsis monitoring system helps save lives and improves care
Research undertaken by Imperial College London, has shown that digital monitoring significantly reduces hospital stays and chance of death related to sepsis.
The digital sepsis alert system at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust was introduced in 2016 and monitors a number of symptoms to help identify sepsis before it becomes a problem.
Alerts are sent to clinicians via a pop-up warning on their electronic health records and/or on a dashboard, which highlights any patient with an active alert when they open a patient's record.
The study found that the chance of death in hospital due to sepsis dropped by 24%, as well as 35% higher chance of receiving timely antibiotics to fight the infection.
Early diagnosis of sepsis is crucial and allows teams in hospitals to determine the best course of action for the patient.
Dr Anne Kinderlerer, consultant rheumatologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and co-author of the study, said:
"More patients are surviving sepsis at our hospitals and it is testament to the alert and treatment plans we have working hand in hand to help us ensure that patients are treated with antibiotics and other interventions in order to save more lives.”
Sepsis has over 120,000 diagnoses every year in England and approximately 46,000 deaths related to the infection.
Further research will be done in the future to determine whether these results are the same with a larger patient group.