Association between emergency department sepsis order set design and delay to second dose piperacillin-tazobactam administration

Background: Delay to first antibiotic dose in patients with sepsis has been associated with increased mortality. Second dose antibiotic delay has also been linked to worsened patient outcomes. Optimal methods to decrease second dose delay are currently unclear. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the association be-tween updating an emergency department (ED) sepsis order set design from one-time doses to scheduled anti-biotic frequencies and delay to administration of second piperacillin-tazobactam dose. Methods: This retrospective cohort study was conducted at eleven hospitals in a large, integrated health system and included adult patients treated in the ED with at least one dose of piperacillin-tazobactam ordered through an ED sepsis order set over a two year period. Patients were excluded if they received less than two doses of piperacillin-tazobactam. Midway through the study period, the enterprise-wide ED sepsis order set was updated to include scheduled antibiotic frequencies. Two patient cohorts receiving piperacillin-tazobactam were com-pared: those in the year before the order set update and those in the year post-update. The primary outcome was major delay, defined as an administration delay >25% of the recommended dosing interval, which was eval-uated with multivariable logistic regression and interrupted time series analysis. Results: 3219 patients were included: 1222 in the pre-update group and 1997 in the post-update group. The pro-portion of patients who experienced major second dose delay was significantly lower in the post-update group (32.7% vs 25.6%, p < 0.01; adjusted OR 0.64, 95% CI 0.52 to 0.78). No between-group difference was detected in the slope of monthly major delay frequency, but there was a significant level change (post-update change -10%, 95% CI -17.9% to-1.9%). Conclusions: Including scheduled antibiotic frequencies in ED sepsis order sets is a pragmatic mechanism to decrease delays in second antibiotic doses.(c) 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.