Priebe, Gregory P.

OBJECTIVES We sought to improve utilization of a sepsis care bundle and decrease 3- and 30- day sepsis-attributable mortality, as well as determine which care elements of a sepsis bundle are associated with improved outcomes. METHODS Children’s Hospital Association formed a QI collaborative to Improve Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes (IPSO) (January 2017–March 2020 analyzed here). IPSO Suspected Sepsis (ISS) patients were those without organ dysfunction where the provider “intended to treat” sepsis. IPSO Critical Sepsis (ICS) patients approximated those with septic shock. Process (bundle adherence), outcome (mortality), and balancing measures were quantified over time using statistical process control. An original bundle (recognition method, fluid bolus < 20 min, antibiotics < 60 min) was retrospectively compared with varying bundle time-points, including a modified evidence-based care bundle, (recognition method, fluid bolus < 60 min, antibiotics < 180 min). We compared outcomes using Pearson χ-square and Kruskal Wallis tests and adjusted analysis. RESULTS Reported are 24 518 ISS and 12 821 ICS cases from 40 children’s hospitals (January 2017–March 2020). Modified bundle compliance demonstrated special cause variation (40.1% to 45.8% in ISS; 52.3% to 57.4% in ICS). The ISS cohort’s 30-day, sepsis-attributable mortality dropped from 1.4% to 0.9%, a 35.7% relative reduction over time (P < .001). In the ICS cohort, compliance with the original bundle was not associated with a decrease in 30-day sepsis-attributable mortality, whereas compliance with the modified bundle decreased mortality from 4.75% to 2.4% (P < .01). CONCLUSIONS Timely treatment of pediatric sepsis is associated with reduced mortality. A time-liberalized care bundle was associated with greater mortality reductions.

OBJECTIVE The pediatric sepsis literature lacks studies examining the inpatient setting, yet sepsis remains a leading cause of death in children’s hospitals. More information is needed about sepsis arising in patients already hospitalized to improve morbidity and mortality outcomes. This study describes the clinical characteristics, process measures, and outcomes of inpatient sepsis cases compared with emergency department (ED) sepsis cases within the Improving Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes data registry from 46 hospitals that care for children. METHODS This retrospective cohort study included Improving Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes sepsis cases from January 2017 to December 2019 with onset in inpatient or ED. We used descriptive statistics to compare inpatient and ED sepsis metrics and describe inpatient sepsis outcomes. RESULTS The cohort included 26 855 cases; 8.4% were inpatient and 91.6% were ED. Inpatient cases had higher sepsis-attributable mortality (2.0% vs 1.4%, P = .025), longer length of stay after sepsis recognition (9 vs 5 days, P <.001), more intensive care admissions (57.6% vs 54.1%, P = .002), and greater average vasopressor use (18.0% vs 13.6%, P <.001) compared with ED. In the inpatient cohort, >40% of cases had a time from arrival to recognition within 12 hours. In 21% of cases, this time was >96 hours. Improved adherence to sepsis treatment bundles over time was associated with improved 30-day sepsis-attributable mortality for inpatients with sepsis. CONCLUSIONS Inpatient sepsis cases had longer lengths of stay, more need for intensive care, and higher vasopressor use. Sepsis-attributable mortality was significantly higher in inpatient cases compared with ED cases and improved with improved sepsis bundle adherence.

Objectives: To describe the Children’s Hospital Association’s Improving Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes sepsis definitions and the identified patients; evaluate the definition using a published framework for evaluating sepsis definitions. Design: Observational cohort. Setting: Multicenter quality improvement collaborative of 46 hospitals from January 2017 to December 2018, excluding neonatal ICUs. Patients: Improving Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes Sepsis was defined by electronic health record evidence of suspected infection and sepsis treatment or organ dysfunction. A more severely ill subgroup, Improving Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes Critical Sepsis, was defined, approximating septic shock. Interventions: Participating hospitals identified patients, extracted data, and transferred de-identified data to a central data warehouse. The definitions were evaluated across domains of reliability, content validity, construct validity, criterion validity, measurement burden, and timeliness. Measurements and Main Results: Forty hospitals met data quality criteria across four electronic health record platforms. There were 23,976 cases of Improving Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes Sepsis, including 8,565 with Improving Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes Critical Sepsis. The median age was 5.9 years. There were 10,316 (43.0%) immunosuppressed or immunocompromised patients, 4,135 (20.3%) with central lines, and 2,352 (11.6%) chronically ventilated. Among Improving Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes Sepsis patients, 60.8% were admitted to intensive care, 26.4% had new positive-pressure ventilation, and 19.7% received vasopressors. Median hospital length of stay was 6.0 days (3.0–13.0 d). All-cause 30-day in-hospital mortality was 958 (4.0%) in Improving Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes Sepsis; 541 (6.3%) in Improving Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes Critical Sepsis. The Improving Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes Sepsis definitions demonstrated strengths in content validity, convergent construct validity, and criterion validity; weakness in reliability. Improving Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes Sepsis definitions had significant initial measurement burden (median time from case completion to submission: 15 mo [interquartile range, 13–18 mo]); timeliness improved once data capture was established (median, 26 d; interquartile range, 23–56 d). Conclusions: The Improving Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes Sepsis definitions demonstrated feasibility for large-scale data abstraction. The patients identified provide important information about children treated for sepsis. When operationalized, these definitions enabled multicenter identification and data aggregation, indicating practical utility for quality improvement.