How to use the UK Sepsis Trust Screening and Action Tools

Since 2015, the UK Sepsis Trust has collaborated with a number of organisations to produce operational clinical tools for all ages (except specifically for neonates) across a wide range of healthcare settings. Most recently, in 2019 these tools were formally endorsed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), following the most fundamental revisions to the Sepsis 6 since its inception

These tools are compatible with the NICE Guideline on Sepsis (NG51), and reflect an operational solution to delivery of the NHS Implementation Guidance.

Where senior clinical input is available, such clinical judgement should, in patients with sepsis and with other conditions, trump any clinical tool. However, we recognise that senior input is not always immediately available, that patients can deteriorate following a touch point with a senior, and that more junior and less experienced health professionals should be responsibly empowered to act when presented with a patient with evidence of physiological derangement in the context of infection.

That’s where the tools below come in. Identify the one most suited to your clinical area, look through it as you listen to the podcast, and prepare to use it to help you to reach decisions which will be supported by the UK Sepsis Trust and by NICE. Remember, if your clinical judgement is telling you that the tool is reaching the wrong conclusion, trust your instinct and ask a senior colleague. Conversely, if you know your patient’s sick and think it’s as a consequence of infection, these tools are here to empower you to act.