Seeking a balanced approach to implementing sepsis guidelines

Sepsis, a life-threatening condition caused by an imbalanced response to infection, is a common diagnostic and therapeutic consideration for clinicians in acute care setting. The Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) guidelines have increased awareness of sepsis and reduced mortality over the past 20 years. The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services created the SEP-1 core measure to ease and encourage implementation of the sepsis guidelines through financial incentives to hospitals. Still, the lack of clarity in sepsis diagnosis remains a concern. Many hospitals mandate sepsis care, forcing clinicians to provide treatment even if they consider it clinically unnecessary or harmful to the patient. This article describes a balanced approach to sepsis guideline implementation using clinical decision tools and educates clinicians on sepsis diagnosis and management.