Congratulations on your excellent achievement.

Pat Posa
Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 8, 2012, at 5:41 PM, "Martie Mattson" <[email protected]> 
wrote:

> As one of the consultants with the Integrated Nurse Leadership Program, I 
> recently completed work with a cohort of nine hospitals in the San Francisco 
> Bay Area.  The improvement project with a goal to reduce sepsis mortality by 
> 15% was funded by a grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and went 
> from 2008 to 2010.   The hospitals implemented RN screening for early sepsis 
> on every adult inpatient every shift and every adult patient at triage in the 
> ED.  The nurses assessed for signs of SIRS and/or signs of new organ 
> dysfunction (hypotension, altered mental status, new or increasing need for 
> O2) and a suspected or confirmed infection.  A positive screen triggered a 
> lactate, and if severe sepsis was confirmed, a blood culture, antibiotic, and 
> fluid bolus within an hour.   Sepsis mortality was reduced in the nine 
> hospitals by an average of 40% from baseline at the end of the 2 years and 
> the improvement still continues.  They are now at an average 44% mortality 
> reduction.  All-or-none compliance with all project-measured resuscitation 
> bundle elements (lactate, blood culture, antibiotic and fluid bolus) improved 
> to a median of 36% and compliance with nurse screening went from essentially 
> none to a median of 91%.  So I absolutely share the bias that early 
> recognition is a large part of the “magic bullet” to reduce sepsis mortality.
> 
>  
> 
> Martie
> Martie Mattson, RN, MSN, CNS
> Sepsis Consultant
> Integrated Nurse Leadership Program
> Center for Health Professions, University of California Medical Center
> (415) 412-2364
> [email protected]
>  
>  
>  
> 
> From: [email protected] 
> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Steven 
> Simpson
> Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2012 6:59 AM
> To: Ron Elkin; Robert A Balk
> Cc: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [Sepsis Groups] SIRS temperature criteria
>  
> 
> Thanks for your reply, Bob.  I'm sorry that you and I are old enough to give 
> "historical" perspective on these issues!  I think you underscored Ron's 
> point, which is that missing people with severe sepsis is potentially deadly 
> and being more sensitive is a wise approach.  I have to agree with you that 
> some lack of specificity may be the reason that none of our tested 
> pharmaceutical agents has been the magic bullet.  But I will again reveal my 
> bias when I say that early recognition and aggressive treatment is the best 
> magic bullet of all.  From the standpoint of quality improvement, it does 
> indeed seem that getting everyone to recognize severe sepsis early would be 
> magic!
>  
> SQS
> 
> 
> Steven Q. Simpson, MD
> Professor of Medicine
> Director, Fellowship Training
> Division of Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine
> University of Kansas
> 3901 Rainbow Blvd.
> Kansas City, KS  66160-7381
> Phone: (913) 588-6045
> Fax: (913) 588-4098
> 
> 
> >>> Robert A Balk <[email protected]> 3/7/2012 7:18 AM >>>
> Good Morning Steve and Group
> I have not been on this list serve discussion, but will be happy to provide 
> some background on the 1991 Sepsis Definition Consensus Conference and the 
> rationale for the 2/4 SIRS criteria.  The 4 SIRS criteria as they were came 
> from the entry criteria for the Upjohn sponsored High Dose Methylprednisolone 
> in Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock study which seemed to identify a population 
> of patients with presumed sepsis that had a significantly high risk for 
> morbidity and mortality from the septic process.  The truth of where the 
> criteria actually came from is that a group of investigators sat is a room 
> and came to agreement on workable, plausible criteria that would allow for 
> rapid and early identification of potential patients with sepsis that could 
> be enrolled into an early intervention study.  As the subsequent article 
> entitled “Sepsis Syndrome: A valid clinical entity”  the concept of a 
> systemic inflammatory response whether from documented infection, documented 
> bacteremia, or presumed infection seems to yield a similar clinical picture.  
> This background and the desire to come to a more uniform and acceptable 
> definition for sepsis that would facilitate early identification of patients 
> for enrollment in clinical intervention trials was the impetus for the 1991 
> Consensus Conference.  The definition that was put forward has been 
> criticized for being too sensitive and not specific, but that was the 
> intention.  Bill Knaus actually had data to guide the conference from the 
> large APACHE and APACHE II data base that demonstrated the best combination 
> of sensitivity and specificity came from having 2 of the 4 criteria.  
> Obviously, the more criteria the better the specificity, but with the goal of 
> having a clinical definition to allow for early identification of potential 
> patients the 2/4 criteria won.
> The changes in temperature based on methods of measurement were not addressed 
> with the definition and I do agree that axillary and tympanic temperature 
> determinations do not seem to be reliable indicators of core temperature in 
> our institution.  The second consensus conference in 2001 attempted to open 
> up the definition by adding further clinical criteria that suggests the 
> presence of infection, but I do not know of any comparative trial that has 
> demonstrated that one definition improves our ability to identify a severe 
> sepsis population better than another.  The original definition of severe 
> sepsis and/or septic shock has actually been used with or without minor 
> modification, in just about every sepsis trial conducted. (maybe that is why 
> we are still struggling to find the “magic bullet” to reverse the process).
> Bob Balk
>  
> Robert A. Balk, MD
> Director - Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
> Rush University Medical Center
> 1653 W. Congress Parkway
> Chicago, IL 60612
> T- 312-942-6744
> F- 312-942-8187
>  
> This message and any attachments contain information intended for the 
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> contain information that is privileged, confidential and/or exempt from 
> disclosure under applicable law.  If the reader of this message is not the 
> intended recipient, or their employee or agent you are hereby notified that 
> any distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited.  If 
> you received this message in error, please phone me immediately at 
> 312-942-6744.
>  
> From: Steven Simpson [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2012 1:45 PM
> To: Ron Elkin
> Cc: Andy Bourgeois; [email protected]; Robert A Balk; 
> Roberta Johnston
> Subject: Re: [Sepsis Groups] SIRS temperature criteria
>  
> Hi Ron,
> I agree completely that a patient with infection and organ dysfunction who 
> can't mount a "complete" SIRS response (2 or more criteria), should be 
> treated aggressively.  I was simply pointing out that the original definition 
> for fever that was proposed by Bone, et al was more stringent than what we 
> now use.  I don't know if Bob Balk is on this list serve or not, but I think 
> I'll copy him to get his insight.  He was clearly involved from the first and 
> was there at the initial ACCP-SCCM consensus conference in 1991.  Perhaps he 
> knows why the fever criterion was loosened at the consensus conference and 
> won't mind sharing with us.  I was a fellow under Roger Bone and Bob Balk at 
> the time of the aforementioned publication describing the clinical importance 
> of what they referred to at the time as sepsis syndrome.  It is an important 
> historical point to remember that previous to the 1991 consensus conference 
> there was NO commonly accepted set of criteria for diagnosing sepsis.  We owe 
> a great debt to these men for moving us beyond the diagnostic free for all 
> that existed previously.  The definitions give us the means to educate many 
> different types of provider and to improve our performance at caring for 
> septic patients in a systematic way.  They, of course, do not remove the 
> obligation for any of us - doctors, nurses, mid-levels, or anyone else - to 
> think and to err on the side of safe and effective patient care, if we are to 
> err at all.  Your points are very well taken and very germane.  What they 
> indicate is what I already know to be true, that you and your team have moved 
> beyond the point of consistently recognizing the clear-cut cases of severe 
> sepsis and on to making sure that no septic patient is left behind.  Your 
> efforts to get everyone on this list serve to that level are both laudable 
> and appreciated.
>  
> SQS 
> 
> 
> Steven Q. Simpson, MD
> Professor of Medicine
> Director, Fellowship Training
> Division of Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine
> University of Kansas
> 3901 Rainbow Blvd.
> Kansas City, KS  66160-7381
> Phone: (913) 588-6045
> Fax: (913) 588-4098
> 
> 
> >>> Ron Elkin <[email protected]> 3/6/2012 12:47 PM >>>
> Hi,
> 
> At the risk of repetition:
>  
> In some respects the strict definition of sepsis, 2 signs of SIRS + 
> infection, can be an obstacle to diagnosis. Signs of SIRS lack sensitivity, 
> specificity, and accuracy for the diagnosis of severe sepsis and septic shock.
>  
> 10-15% of our patients with infection and organ failure - ie severe sepsis or 
> septic shock - have FEWER than 2 signs of SIRS. These are mainly the elderly, 
> the immunosuppressed, or patients on drugs or with other conditions that 
> preclude tachycardia or fever, or even tachypnea (beta blockers, calcium 
> channel blockers, NSAIDS, ASA, sedatives, narcotics, pacemakers, heart block, 
> bradyarrhythmias, hypothyroidism, etc).
> 
> Fever is a particularly fickle indicator of infection. I daresay we are all 
> aware of debilitated elderly people who never exceed 36 degrees C in health 
> and present with obtundation as the only manifestation of severe sepsis, ie 
> no SIRS. Many of these patients have positive cultures and get better with 
> fluid and antibiotics. If we don't call this severe sepsis because signs of 
> SIRS are absent, what do we call it? In this context stipulating a 
> temperature threshold for SIRS as 38 or 38.3 seems irrelevant.
>  
> Signs of SIRS are undeniably useful for screening and often lead one to 
> suspect infection as the probable cause of acute organ failure. One of the 
> purposes of initial screening, however, is to avoid missing cases. The 
> sensitivity of the initial screen should therefore be high, with the 
> knowledge that there will indeed be false positives. It is an error to 
> terminate screening because there are 0-1 sign of SIRS.
> 
> Our screening methods have accordingly moved towards the following 3 
> questions which we regard as completely independent of one another:
> 1) Are there 1 or more new signs of SIRS?
> 2) Is there suspicion of infection?
> 3) Is there evidence of new organ dysfunction?
> 
> "Yes" to any of these 3 questions is intended to trigger a call to the MD 
> with further investigation to follow.
>  
> References are attached.
> 
> Thanks
>  
> Ron Elkin, MD
> California Pacific Medical Center 
> San Francisco, California
>  
> On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 9:45 AM, Steven Simpson <[email protected]> wrote:
> It should be pointed out that the original validation of the sepsis syndrome 
> (now called severe sepsis) was in the following landmark paper: Bone RC, et 
> al. Sepsis Syndrome: A Valid Clinical Entity. Critical Care Medicine 
> 17:389-393. The inclusion criterion for temperature was rectal T > 101 
> degrees F or < 96 degrees F. That would be 38.3 degrees C and 35.5 degrees C. 
> I'm not sure how, exactly, we got to the numbers 38 and 36 in our "standard" 
> criteria, nor how we wandered away from rectal temperatures, unless it was 
> deemed more useful, i.e. more sensitive or more inclusive to allow different 
> methods of obtaining temperature. Interestingly, TM probes and continuous 
> bladder temps were not even available at the time of the original study! 
> Nevertheless, the SSC has demonstrated very much improved survival of 
> patients fitting the more standard criteria, and we should probably be 
> circumspect about tossing them out at this juncture.
>  
> SQS
> 
> 
> >>> Andy Bourgeois <[email protected]> 2/27/2012 11:48 AM >>>
> 
> SIRS criteria have been defined differently in various studies.
> 
> The temperature was 38 degrees C in a few early articles:
> 
> One of the early definitions of sepsis:
> Definitions for sepsis and organ failure and guidelines for the use of 
> innovative therapies in sepsis. The ACCP/SCCM Consensus Conference Committee. 
> American College of Chest Physicians/Society of Critical Care Medicine.
> Bone RC, Balk RA, Cerra FB, Dellinger RP, Fein AM, Knaus WA, Schein RM, 
> Sibbald WJ.
> Chest. 1992 Jun;101(6):1644-55. Review
> 
> The original Early Goal Directed Therapy article from 2001
> Early goal-directed therapy in the treatment of severe sepsis and septic 
> shock.
> Rivers E, Nguyen B, Havstad S, Ressler J, Muzzin A, Knoblich B, Peterson E, 
> Tomlanovich M; Early Goal-Directed Therapy Collaborative Group.
> N Engl J Med. 2001 Nov 8;345(19):1368-77.
> 
> Most of the more recent studies and reviews use 38.3 degrees C:
> 
> International Sepsis Definitions Conference in 2001
> 2001 SCCM/ESICM/ACCP/ATS/SIS International Sepsis Definitions Conference.
> Levy MM, Fink MP, Marshall JC, Abraham E, Angus D, Cook D, Cohen J, Opal SM, 
> Vincent JL, Ramsay G; SCCM/ESICM/ACCP/ATS/SIS.
> Crit Care Med. 2003 Apr;31(4):1250-6. Review.
> 
> In this 2006 review article from some of the original Early Goal Directed 
> Therapy investigators:
> Severe sepsis and septic shock: review of the literature and emergency 
> department management guidelines.
> Nguyen HB, Rivers EP, Abrahamian FM, et al.
> Ann Emerg Med. 2006 Jul;48(1):28-54. Epub 2006 May 2. Review.
> 
> The Surviving Sepsis Campaign - 2008
> Surviving Sepsis Campaign: international guidelines for management of severe 
> sepsis and septic shock: 2008.
> Dellinger RP, Levy MM, Carlet JM, et al.
> Crit Care Med. 2008 Jan;36(1):296-327. Erratum in: Crit Care Med. 2008 
> Apr;36(4):1394-6.
> 
> I'd recommend 38.3 degrees C to match the more recent definitions so that 
> your sepsis statistics can be easily compared to published studies.
> 
> Here's an article on comparison of methods of measuring temperature. Bottom 
> line is that IR ear probes are somewhat variable and axillary reads too low. 
> Go with oral, rectal or bladder.
> 
> Erickson RS, Kirklin SK. Comparison of ear-based, bladder, oral, and axillary
> methods for core temperature measurement. Crit Care Med. 1993 
> Oct;21(10):1528-34.
> PubMed PMID: 8403963.
> 
> 
> Andy Bourgeois, MD, FAAEM, FACEP
> Emergency Medicine
> Simi Valley Hospital
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  
> On Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 11:47 AM, Johnston, Roberta 
> <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi everyone- Our Sepsis committee would like to know if the temp criteria is 
> 38.3 or 38, and is the method of obtaining the temperature? Thanks in 
> advance, Roberta
>  
> Roberta Johnston, RN,BS,CMC.
> Cardiopulmonary Case Manager
> 700 High St.
> Williamsport, Pa. 17701
> Phone:570-321-2112, Fax:570-321-2822;Cell: 570-560-8993
> [email protected]
>  
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