You can use the acronym to help identify sepsis patients
T emperature >101.5
I nfection (suspected infection ie open wounds, on antibiotics PTA etc)
M ental decline (AMS)
E xtremely ill

From: Sepsisgroups [mailto:sepsisgroups-boun...@lists.sepsisgroups.org] On 
Behalf Of Angela Craig
Sent: Tuesday, October 15, 2019 2:45 PM
To: 'McKnight, Elise'; sepsisgroups@lists.sepsisgroups.org
Subject: **[External]**Re: [Sepsis Groups] Sepsis BPAs and screening in the ED

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For our ED population we use known/suspected infection, altered mental status 
and abdominal pain as triggers.  Hope this helps!!

Angela Craig APN,MS,CCNS
ICU Clinical Nurse Specialist
1 Medical Center Boulevard, Cookeville, TN 38501
Phone: 931-783-5035 Fax: 931-783-5039
acr...@crmchealth.org<mailto:acr...@crmchealth.org> | crmchealth.org |Facebook 
| Twitter
Cookeville Regional Medical Center: Building Healthier Communities

From: Sepsisgroups [mailto:sepsisgroups-boun...@lists.sepsisgroups.org] On 
Behalf Of McKnight, Elise
Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2019 12:32 PM
To: 
sepsisgroups@lists.sepsisgroups.org<mailto:sepsisgroups@lists.sepsisgroups.org>
Subject: [Sepsis Groups] Sepsis BPAs and screening in the ED

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Hello,
I know this topic has been talked about a few times but wondering what others 
use as triggers for sepsis identification in the Emergency Department.
We have nurses answer a ‘yes’/’no’ question about suspected sepsis and then if 
they say ‘yes’ Epic looks for 2 or more SIRS on the patient and will fire a BPA 
(Best Practice Alert) to RN/provider that says the patient might have sepsis 
and to get a CBC/Lactate.  If the patient then develops hypotension or a 
lactate > 2.0 it will fire another BPA to say to call a Sepsis Alert and 
initiate the rest of the sepsis bundle.
We struggle with getting the ‘yes’/’no’ on the infection question accurate and 
that is the hinge to the BPA firing.  Additionally, we currently hinge calling 
an alert on either the lactate or hypotension.  We are only getting the 
infection question right about 50% of the time meaning a lot of septic patients 
miss getting a BPA fire.

-        What do other have built within their EHR to help trigger staff the 
patient might be septic?

-        Anyone else found a way to pull for concern of infection other than 
staff answering a yes/no question?

-        Any other logic other than SIRS for EHR triggers?

-        Does anyone have staff trigger a sepsis alert off of just suspected 
infection + SIRS

-        What are your triggers for calling a sepsis alert in the ED

We also have a lot of pushback with concerns of over treating viral, strep 
throat, etc based on the BPAs.  Anyone else found this? Solutions? I know 
sometimes because we did draw a lactate we found that “healthy” 20year old with 
pharyngitis is actually quite sick but looking at ways to show data on patients 
we would have missed if we did not draw a lactate on seemingly “healthy” 
patients.

If anyone doesn’t mind sharing it would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

Elise McKnight
Sepsis Coordinator Northern Colorado
Medical Center of the Rockies
Poudre Valley Hospital
Yampa Valley Medical Center
Longs Peak Hospital
Greeley Hospital
2500 Rocky Mountain Ave
Loveland, CO 80538
O



970.624.2153

C



970.290.9436

F



970.624.2192

elise.mckni...@uchealth.org<mailto:elise.mckni...@uchealth.org>
uchealth.org<http://uchealth.org>

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