Abstract
Each year in the UK, it is estimated that more than 100,000 people are admitted to hospital with sepsis and around 37,000 people will die as a result of the condition. We present an audit, re-audit and the implications these have had on the management of severe sepsis using the Sepsis Six, ultimately through actively promoting teamwork to initiate the protocol. This led to a significant improvement in management, decreasing admissions to the intensive care unit (ITU), length of stay in hospital and the number of patient deaths.The initial audit and re-audit were done over 2-month periods. All clerking notes of patients with a medical consultant diagnosis of 'sepsis' on post-take ward round were analysed and further screened for presence of severe sepsis according to national guidelines.There was significant improvement from only 1% of patients being appropriately managed (according to the existing guidelines) to 67% of eligible subjects adhering to the protocol (p<0.0001). Initially, 19% were admitted to the ITU (6% died), improving to 7% on re-audit (with no deaths). Length of hospital stay reduced from 10 to 7 days (p<0.0001).There was a complete change in the management of severe sepsis with trust-wide updated protocols, resulting in a decrease in hospital morbidity and mortality.