Purpose: To determine the long-term degree of compliance with the Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) bundles and related outcomes after an educational program in septic patients admitted to a network of intensive care units (ICU).
Methods: Prospective, observational, multicenter study in several ICUs during a 5-month period for evaluating the degree of compliance with the SSC bundles of resuscitation in the first 6 h (B6H) and management in the following 24 h (B24H). We compared the findings with those from a historical cohort at the same ICUs after an educational program (EDUSEPSIS) 5 years earlier.
Results: The study cohort comprised 231 episodes of severe sepsis and the historical cohort included 217. In the current cohort, we found a better compliance with B6H compared with the historical cohort (27.7% vs. 9.7%, P < 0.001), and lower compliance with B24H (4.3% vs. 12.9%, P < 0.001). ICU and in-hospital mortalities were reduced from 37.3% to 27.1% (P = 0.02) and from 45.3% to 36.7% (P = 0.06), respectively. This reduction occurred linearly with the number of B6H items completed (P for trend <0.001). All B6H measures were individually associated with lower ICU mortality. Measurement of plasma lactate, blood cultures, and administration of broad-spectrum antibiotics were associated with lower in-hospital mortality. No benefit was observed regarding B24H.
Conclusions: Our study confirmed that an educational campaign aimed at early recognition and management of patients with severe sepsis improves compliance with management recommendations and hospital survival in the long term.