A New Pathway to Reduce Pediatric Sepsis Morbidity and Mortality

In the United States, there are over 75,000 cases of severe sepsis requiring hospitalization annually. It is the leading cause of death in children worldwide, with mortality of 4% to 20% in different pediatric populations and settings.

In the world of stroke, they say “time is brain.” In sepsis, “time is organ function.” Early diagnosis and treatment can be the difference between life and death.

No specialty “owns” sepsis. It’s all hands on deck. There are new protocols, sepsis teams, guidelines, and alliances to combat sepsis. Providers, payers, researchers, risk underwriters, accreditors, and regulators are all on notice to reduce sepsis morbidity and mortality.

It is often said that pediatric patients are not small adults, and the management of sepsis must take into account the patient’s age, size, immune capacity, and infection-related syndromes that are specific to children. It is especially important to understand that children may experience shock differently from adults. For example, their capacity to sustain extreme tachycardia may mask deterioration until rapid decompensation leads to imminent and potentially irreversible cardiovascular collapse. As with adults, the key to good outcomes is early recognition and prompt, evidence-based treatment.

This pediatric sepsis study was designed as a clinical intervention using the Amplifire training tool, which delivers a groundbreaking learning experience and advanced analytics. The goal was to acquire data on what doctors and nurses know about sepsis. Can they recognize sepsis at an early stage? Do they know the evidence supporting treatment guidelines? Are they confident about how to respond?

Amplifire focuses learners’ time where they need it the most. As a result, pediatric clinicians with high amounts of pre-existing knowledge completed the course in an average of 19 minutes. Clinicians with low pre-existing knowledge took an average of 39 minutes to finish. Overall, the average learner took 46 minutes.

Observations

  • 2,865 instances of confidently held misinformation found and fixed.
  • 7,216 instances of uncertainty found and fixed.
  • The variation of knowledge was high, with some clinicans misinformed and others showing con dent mastery of the topic. The most knowledgeable are nearly 100 percent confident and correct about sepsis. The least knowledgeable revealed misinformation about more than half the topics.
  • Clinicians who were most misinformed or uncertain spent nearly an 40 minutes in the module, while those who already knew much about sepsis spent only 19 minutes.
  • By the end of the course, 100% of the clinicians who completed were confident and correct on all the information.

Clinical Challenges and Implications

Amplifire discovered that there was a lot of confusion around serum lactate levels and tourniquet usage, antimicrobial stewardship and hemodynamics, shock and hypovolemia. Complete the form below to learn about all of the clinical challenges and implications that were uncovered in this study.