Impact of an Antibiotic-specific Sepsis Bundle on Appropriate and Timely Antibiotic Administration for Severe Sepsis in the Emergency Department

Background: Guidelines recommend initiation of appropriate antimicrobial therapy within 1 h of severe sepsis diagnosis. Few sepsis bundles exist in the literature emphasizing initiation of specific antibiotic therapy.

Objective: To determine the impact of an antibiotic-specific sepsis bundle on the timely initiation of appropriate antibiotics.

Methods: For this before-and-after interventional study, the sepsis bundle at this 803-bed academic tertiary-care facility was redesigned to include specific antibiotic selection and dosing, based on suspected source of infection and susceptibility patterns. Protocol education and advertising was completed and bundle-specific antibiotics were put in the automated medication cabinet.

Results: Stepwise analysis of timely initiation of appropriate antibiotics included: 1) Was the initial antibiotic appropriate? 2) If so, was it initiated within 1 h of diagnosis? 3) If so, were all necessary appropriate antibiotics started? and 4) If so, were they started within 3 h of diagnosis? In comparing the 3-month-before group and 3-month-after group (n = 124), the appropriate initial antibiotic was started in 33.9% vs. 54.8% of patients (odds ratio [OR] 0.42, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.19-0.93, p = 0.03) and within 1 h in 22.6% vs. 14.5% of patients (OR 1.71, 95% CI 0.62-4.92, p = 0.36), respectively. All necessary appropriate antibiotics were initiated in 16.1% vs. 12.9% of patients (OR 1.30, 95% CI 0.42-4.10, p = 0.80), and within 3 h in 14.5% vs. 9.7% of patients, respectively (OR 1.58, 95% CI 0.46-5.78, p = 0.58).

Conclusions: An updated antibiotic-specific sepsis bundle, with antibiotics put in an automated medication cabinet, can result in improvements in the initiation of appropriate initial antibiotic therapy for severe sepsis in the emergency department.