NAEMT and Sepsis Alliance Announce Results of National Sepsis Survey

In a recent national survey of more than 1,300 EMS providers, the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians (NAEMT) in association with the Sepsis Alliance found that although nearly all respondents (98%) consider sepsis a medical emergency, only about half (51%) feel very confident in their ability to recognize symptoms of sepsis—the body’s life-threatening response to an infection. Each year, about 1.7 million people in the United States are diagnosed with sepsis, with 270,000 dying, making sepsis a priority public health issue. This is reflected in the 83% of respondents who say that they’ve seen sepsis within the past year. `With mortality from sepsis increasing as much as 8% for every hour the treatment is delayed, and EMS transporting more than 50% of all sepsis cases to the ED, prehospital providers play a huge role in preventing deaths from sepsis. Unfortunately, more than one third of EMS providers surveyed say that sepsis isn’t a key priority within their organization, and 33% say their organization isn’t well prepared for patients with sepsis. Furthermore, 25% state that while they know patients have sepsis, physicians don’t like to diagnose them with it, and 58% say when patients are showing signs of sepsis, not all hospitals initiate a sepsis protocol. “Prehospital sepsis care should be a priority for every EMS organization,” says NAMET Medical Director Craig Manifold, MD. Sepsis has an annual impact equal to, if not greater than, stro...
Source: JEMS Patient Care - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Patient Care News Source Type: news