Automating a Manual Sepsis Screening Tool in a Pediatric Emergency Department.

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Emergency Medicine
• Clinical Informatics
• Sepsis Management

Background:

• Sepsis screening in pediatric emergency departments is crucial for timely intervention.
• Manual screening processes can be time-consuming and may delay care.
• Electronic health record (EHR) integration offers potential for streamlined workflows.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the method of integrating a manual pediatric sepsis screening process into the EHR.
• To evaluate the performance and accuracy of the integrated electronic sepsis screening tool.
• To assess the impact on early sepsis detection and provider workflow.

Main Methods:

• Mapped manual sepsis screening criteria to existing EHR documentation fields.
• Extracted and scored data from medical history, medications, vital signs, and physical assessments.
• Implemented interruptive system alerts triggered by sepsis risk thresholds.

Main Results:

• The automated EHR tool identified 100% of patients flagged by the manual process.
• Alerts were triggered, on average, 68 minutes earlier than the manual process.
• The electronic tool demonstrated comparable accuracy to the manual screening method.

Conclusions:

• EHR integration automates pediatric sepsis screening in emergency departments.
• The electronic tool is accurate and provides earlier alerts, improving sepsis detection.
• This approach enhances sepsis management without increasing provider documentation burden.