Target patients at highest risk of sepsis for immediate antibiotics, says NICE

Antibiotics should be better targeted at patients most at risk of sepsis to reduce the risk of antibiotic resistance, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has said.1It advised that doctors should use the updated National Early Warning Score (NEWS2) to assess patients suspected of having sepsis and should prioritise those graded as being the most severely ill to receive broad spectrum antibiotics within an hour.NICE said that using the updated NEWS2 warning score2 should result in more people being graded as lower risk, meaning that they can be treated within one to three hours. In these patients the diagnosis should be clarified before starting antibiotics, and treatment should be targeted at a specific infection where possible.“This will help to reduce the risk of antibiotic resistance and give healthcare professionals more time to investigate those who are less severely ill, so they receive the right treatment,” said NICE. At…
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