Evaluation of an Intensive Care Unit Sepsis Alert in Critically Ill Medical Patients

Background Sepsis alerts commonly used for intensive care unit (ICU) patients can lead to alert fatigue because these patients generally meet 1 or more of the criteria for systemic inflammatory response syndrome. To identify ICU patients at greatest risk for sepsis-related consequences, an ICU-specific sepsis alert was implemented. Objective To evaluate an ICU sepsis alert based on modified criteria for systemic inflammatory response syndrome among critically ill medical patients. Methods This retrospective evaluation was conducted at a comprehensive tertiary referral center. Patients included were at least 18 years old, were admitted to the critical care medicine service, and had at least 1 sepsis alert between January 1 and February 29, 2020. The sepsis alert identified patients meeting at least 2 modified systemic inflammatory response syndrome criteria (white blood cell count, 4000/μL or 12 000/μL; body temperature, 36 °C or 38.3 °C; heart rate, 110/min; and respiratory rate, 21/min), with at least 1 of the 2 criteria being white blood cell count or body temperature. Results For 128 alerts evaluated, the positive predictive value was 72%. Of 713 patients who were admitted to the critical care medicine service and did not have a sepsis alert, 7 received a sepsis diagnosis. The ICU sepsis alert had a negative predictive value of 99%, sensitivity of 92.9%, and specificity of 95.1%. Conclusions An ICU sepsis alert using modified systemic inflammatory response syndrome criteria was effective for identifying sepsis in critically ill medical patients.