According to the Health Service Executive’s National Clinical Guideline No. 6 (2014), Sepsis is “the clinical syndrome defined by the presence of both infection and the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS)”.
Each hospital should have its own sepsis protocol, however it should meet the standards expected by the guidelines set nationally. “Sepsis is common and is a time dependent medical emergency”, HSE’s National Clinical Guideline No. 6 (2014). According to this national guideline, campaigns for sepsis that have been introduced internationally help reduce the mortality rates of sepsis through early recognition and resuscitation. Due to the deaths of ten patients as a result of sepsis in the UK, the ‘Surviving Sepsis Campaign’ (SSC) …show more content…
Oncology patients receiving chemotherapy also come through our department and wait to be seen directly by the medical team so though they may have had blood samples taken, they may wait outside the expected treatment time of an hour for treatment of antibiotic’s or fluids. This deficit in care is profoundly dangerous for the patient if they are neutropenic.
Misdiagnosis also occurs as sepsis can sometimes mimic other illnesses. If sepsis is not suspected at triage, the patient may end up waiting for hours in our emergency department. This is a challenge for the triage nurse, and a thorough history of the presenting complaint should be taken. A delayed diagnosis results in a delayed treatment. Timing is key for antibiotic therapy as outlined by Zilberberg et al, (2015). The patient, in this delayed period, may have transitioned from the systemic inflammatory response syndrome to severe sepsis or worse, septic shock.
Another challenge we see is a delay with the treatment through drugs. To counteract the drop in blood pressure usually our patients are treated with intravenous fluids for a prolonged time before vasodilators are introduced, as advised by the national
Each hospital should have its own sepsis protocol, however it should meet the standards expected by the guidelines set nationally. “Sepsis is common and is a time dependent medical emergency”, HSE’s National Clinical Guideline No. 6 (2014). According to this national guideline, campaigns for sepsis that have been introduced internationally help reduce the mortality rates of sepsis through early recognition and resuscitation. Due to the deaths of ten patients as a result of sepsis in the UK, the ‘Surviving Sepsis Campaign’ (SSC) …show more content…
Oncology patients receiving chemotherapy also come through our department and wait to be seen directly by the medical team so though they may have had blood samples taken, they may wait outside the expected treatment time of an hour for treatment of antibiotic’s or fluids. This deficit in care is profoundly dangerous for the patient if they are neutropenic.
Misdiagnosis also occurs as sepsis can sometimes mimic other illnesses. If sepsis is not suspected at triage, the patient may end up waiting for hours in our emergency department. This is a challenge for the triage nurse, and a thorough history of the presenting complaint should be taken. A delayed diagnosis results in a delayed treatment. Timing is key for antibiotic therapy as outlined by Zilberberg et al, (2015). The patient, in this delayed period, may have transitioned from the systemic inflammatory response syndrome to severe sepsis or worse, septic shock.
Another challenge we see is a delay with the treatment through drugs. To counteract the drop in blood pressure usually our patients are treated with intravenous fluids for a prolonged time before vasodilators are introduced, as advised by the national