UMMS Sepsis Early Prediction Score (SEPSys) and RESCUE Score Combined Clinical Trial

The University of Maryland Medical System is conducting a study designed to test two new risk scores - one designed to predict a patient's four-hour risk of developing sepsis and one designed to predict a patient's four-hour risk of deterioration (death, cardiac arrest, unplanned ICU transfer, or rapid response call). The goal of this study is to improve provider awareness of a patient's risk of these two negative outcomes, sepsis and deterioration, by providing them with new risk scores. To assess provider awareness of risk, this study will measure time from elevated risk score to measurement of vital signs, such as heart rate or blood pressure with the hope that increased awareness of risk will decrease time to vital sign measurement, indicating closer monitoring. The first risk score, the RESCUE Score, produces a highly accurate 1-4 color-coded risk score where a 1 indicates that a patient has a low risk of having a deterioration event in the next four hours and a 4 indicates that the patient has a high risk of having a deterioration event in the next four hours. The second risk score, the SEPSys Score, produces a highly accurate 1-4 color coded risk score where 1 indicates that a patient has a low risk of developing sepsis in the next 4 hours and a 4 indicates that the patient has a high risk of developing sepsis in the next 4 hours. Both of these scores are predictive of events that may happen in the future but are not detective or diagnostic of events that are actively occurring. In this study, hospitals will be randomized for the order in which they cross-over from the control arm (no risk score) to either having the SEPSys or RESCUE Score visible for their inpatients. After a few months with an individual risk score, the second risk score will be added. Thus, at the beginning of the study, no hospitals with have the new risk scores available, for a period in the middle of the study each hospital will have one risk score available, and by the end of the study all hospitals will have both risk scores available. Regardless of which risk scores are available, the clinicians will be free to recommend treatments and implement care plans using their own judgement. No procedures impacting patient care will be specified for this study.