Observational studyPloS one2020
Early diagnosis of sepsis in emergency departments, time to treatment, and association with mortality: An observational study.
Observational study in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 61 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
61 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 125 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evaluating Artificial Intelligence for Sepsis Prediction in Emergency Departments: A Systematic Review and Meta Analysis.Journal of medical systems · 2026Pooled it
- Comparing the Predictive Value of SOFA and SIRS for Mortality in the Early Hours of Hospitalization of Sepsis Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Archives of Iranian medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Age-adjusted quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score for predicting mortality and disease severity in children with infection: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2021Pooled it
- Predicting mortality in adult patients with sepsis in the emergency department by using combinations of biomarkers and clinical scoring systems: a systematic review.BMC emergency medicine · 2021Pooled it
- The tip of the iceberg of colorectal perforation from enema: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Techniques in coloproctology · 2020Pooled it
- Effects of external inspections on sepsis detection and treatment: a stepped-wedge study with cluster-level randomisation.BMJ open · 2020Trial
- From early recognition to precision medicine: advances in the diagnosis and management of adult sepsis and septic shock-a narrative review.Infection · 2026Review
- A retrospective analysis of emergency department cultures in a tertiary care center.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- The Implementation Gap in Early Septic Shock Resuscitation: A Three-Barrier Framework.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- From bench to triage: diagnostic utility of delta-like canonical notch ligand-1 (DLL-1) for early sepsis prediction in the emergency department.Infection · 2026Article
- Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of pre-hospital emergency medical care practitioners regarding sepsis recognition: a cross-sectional study in Qatar.BMC emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Association of Once-Daily MALDI-TOF MS Identification with Antibiotic Appropriateness and First-Modification Patterns in Emergency Department Bacteremia: A Retrospective Before-After Cohort Study.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Machine Learning Models for Sepsis: From Early Detection to Short- and Long-Term Prognosis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Sepsis as a complex syndrome: Are combined biomarkers the future of diagnosis and prognosis? Clinical perspective.Immunology letters · 2026Review
- Adjudication instrument for infection in critically injured trauma patients.Trauma surgery & acute care open · 2026Article
- Dissociation between gut microbiota remodeling and early gut-liver injury in CLP-induced sepsis.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Article
- Reassessing the promise of NGS in sepsis diagnosis: overcoming scalability barriers.Future microbiology · 2025Article
- Bug Wars: Artificial Intelligence Strikes Back in Sepsis Management.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Cell population data for early detection of sepsis in patients with suspected infection in the emergency department.Clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine · 2025Article
- Evaluating Sepsis Mortality Predictions from the Emergency Department: A Retrospective Cohort Study Comparing qSOFA, the National Early Warning Score, and the International Early Warning Score.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
1 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
10 authors at 8 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEarly recognition of sepsis is critical for timely initiation of treatment. The first objective of this study was to assess the timeliness of diagnostic procedures for recognizing sepsis in emergency departments. We define diagnostic procedures as tests used to help diagnose the condition of patients. The second objective was to estimate associations between diagnostic procedures and time to antibiotic treatment, and to estimate associations between time to antibiotic treatment and mortality.
methodsThis observational study from 24 emergency departments in Norway included 1559 patients with infection and at least two systemic inflammatory response syndrome criteria. We estimated associations using linear and logistic regression analyses.
resultsOf the study patients, 72.9% (CI 70.7-75.1) had documented triage within 15 minutes of presentation to the emergency departments, 44.9% (42.4-47.4) were examined by a physician in accordance with the triage priority, 44.4% (41.4-46.9) were adequately observed through continual monitoring of signs while in the emergency department, and 25.4% (23.2-27.7) received antibiotics within 1 hour. Delay or non-completion of these key diagnostic procedures predicted a delay of more than 2.5 hours to antibiotic treatment. Patients who received antibiotics within 1 hour had an observed 30-day all-cause mortality of 13.6% (10.1-17.1), in the timespan 2 to 3 hours after admission 5.9% (2.8-9.1), and 4 hours or later after admission 10.5% (5.7-15.3).
conclusionsKey procedures for recognizing sepsis were delayed or not completed in a substantial proportion of patients admitted to the emergency department with sepsis. Delay or non-completion of key diagnostic procedures was associated with prolonged time to treatment with antibiotics. This suggests a need for systematic improvement in the initial management of patients admitted to emergency departments with sepsis.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.