SynthesisJournal of paediatrics and child health2026
Alerts and Alarms-Can Electronic Medical Records Help Children and Adolescents Survive Sepsis?
Synthesis in Journal of paediatrics and child health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Review
- Can Electronic Medical Records Improve Recognition of Paediatric Sepsis?Journal of paediatrics and child health · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Early recognition and treatment of paediatric sepsis has been shown to improve survival. Automated sepsis alerts embedded in electronic medical records (EMRs) offer real-time identification of high-risk patients and may improve timeliness of sepsis care, with possible limitations including overdiagnosis, overtreatment and alert fatigue. It is currently unclear whether automated alerts improve clinical outcomes in paediatric sepsis. We conducted a systematic review and narrative synthesis of studies evaluating clinical outcomes (mortality, PICU admission rate, length of stay), process measures (time to fluids/antibiotics, bundle adherence), and balancing measures (hospitalisation rate, antibiotic use) after implementation of EMR-based automated sepsis alerts in patients under 18 years of age. Twelve studies met inclusion criteria. Automated alerts were associated with improvements in process measures, notably reduced time to antibiotics (4/6 studies) and fluids (2/5 studies). Mortality was reduced in one study of PICU patients (29.9% vs. 17.4%, p = 0.011), and a trend towards reduced PICU admissions was observed. No significant impact on hospital or PICU length of stay was noted. Alerts did not increase hospital admission rates or antibiotic usage. Automated sepsis alerts may improve time to fluids and antibiotics in paediatric sepsis. While inconsistently reported, alerts were not found to increase hospital admission rates or antibiotic use. The impact on clinical outcomes, particularly mortality, remains uncertain. High quality randomised studies are needed to define their role in improving paediatric sepsis outcomes.
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.