Table 2.
Out-of-hospital providers’ awareness of sepsis^
| Question | Total (N=786) | Paramedics (N=102) | Fire-fighter-EMTs (N=408) | EMTs (N=276) | P value* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1: Have you heard of the term sepsis? | |||||
| Yes | 761 (97) | 102 (100) | 386 (95) | 273 (99) | 0.016 |
| No | 12 (2) | 0 (0) | 12 (3) | 0 (0) | . |
| Not sure | 12 (2) | 0 (0) | 9 (2) | 3 (1) | . |
| Q2: Does any of these conditions have a greater mortality than sepsis? | |||||
| Traumatic injury | 186 (24) | 20 (20) | 91 (22) | 75 (27) | <0.01 |
| Stroke | 99 (13) | 8 (8) | 35 (9) | 56 (21) | <0.01 |
| **Cardiac arrest | 603 (76) | 88 (86) | 297 (73) | 218 (79) | <0.01 |
| Myocardial infarction | 48 (6) | 17 (17) | 148 (36) | 8 (3) | <0.01 |
| Q3: Which of the following is the definition of sepsis? | |||||
| Allergy | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | <0.01 |
| Suspicion or presence of infection | 215 (27) | 13 (13) | 102 (25) | 100 (36) | . |
| **Suspicion or presence of infection with inflammatory response | 501 (64) | 83 (81) | 261 (64) | 157 (57) | . |
| Not sure | 16 (2) | 0 (0) | 9 (2) | 7 (3) | . |
| Other | 41 (5) | 6 (6) | 23 (6) | 12 (4) | . |
| Q4: Is the definition of sepsis commonly accepted within your specialty? | |||||
| Yes | 423 (54) | 51 (50) | 176 (43) | 196 (71) | <0.01 |
| Not sure | 149 (19) | 38 (37) | 72 (18) | 39 (14) | . |
| Not sure | 200 (25) | 13 (13) | 147 (36) | 40 (14) | . |
| Q5: How often is the diagnosis of sepsis missed by EMS providers? | |||||
| A lot of the time | 284 (36) | 33 (33) | 163 (40) | 88 (32) | <0.01 |
| Some of the time | 312 (40) | 51 (50) | 143 (35) | 118 (43) | . |
| A little of the time | 99 (13) | 18 (18) | 41 (10) | 40 (14) | . |
| None of the time | 7 (1) | 0 (0) | 3 (1) | 4 (1) | . |
| Not sure | 15 (2) | 0 (0) | 14 (3) | 1 (<1) | . |
^
All results presented as N (%), correct answer marked by double asterisk for questions 2 and 3
*
Chi-square test of significance comparing responses across three groups (P, FF-EMTs, and EMTs)