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Abstract
The U.S. National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued estimates derived from claims data that sepsis cases have increased in the U.S. from 621,000 in the year 2000 to 1,141,000 in 2008. With increased use of electronic health records (EHR), a significant amount of secondary EHR data is collected. This data can be used to develop and implement an Early Warning Scoring system (EWS) to identify septic patients earlier and help improve in hospital mortality of septic patients. Since early detection of sepsis in adults is challenging, this thesis explores and proposes opportunities to improve the accuracy of the early warning scoring systems and alerts used to detect sepsis. This thesis approach is to identify new vital sign thresholds in SIRS criteria for different age groups that can help improve the efficiency of the current sepsis alert at UC Davis Health System (UCDHS). Evaluating these new scoring systems shows improved sensitivity and specificity in early detection of sepsis in adults.
