Sepsis
Patient Safety
Definition. Sepsis is life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection.
Explanation
This definition comes from the Third International Consensus (Sepsis-3), which replaced earlier criteria based on systemic inflammation. Organ dysfunction is identified by an increase of two or more points in the SOFA score, and septic shock is sepsis with circulatory and metabolic abnormalities severe enough to increase mortality substantially (Singer et al., 2016).
Because outcomes depend on early recognition and treatment, sepsis is a common target of quality improvement and patient safety programmes, including screening tools, care bundles and audit of time to antibiotics (Evans et al., 2021).
Related concepts
Adverse event Clinical pathway
Read on The Health Topics
- Predictive Quality: An Introduction 101
- The Limits Of Explicit Criteria: An Epistemic-Tension Analysis of Donabedian’s 1981 Text, a Reverse Reading Through AGREE–GRADE–NICE, and a Counterfactual Interpretation for the Machine-Learning Era
- Martha’s Rule: Enhancing Patient Safety Through Second Opinions
- The Frenemy Concept: An Academic Framework Between Amity and Enmity
- Do Hospital Accreditation Standards Rest on Solid Evidence? A Systematic Evidence Mapping of 1,599 Standards Reveals Structural Tensions
- Plague as a Bioweapon: Medical and Public Health Management
References
Evans, L., Rhodes, A., Alhazzani, W., Antonelli, M., Coopersmith, C. M., French, C., et al. (2021). Surviving sepsis campaign: International guidelines for management of sepsis and septic shock 2021. Critical Care Medicine, 49(11), e1063–e1143.
Singer, M., Deutschman, C. S., Seymour, C. W., Shankar-Hari, M., Annane, D., Bauer, M., et al. (2016). The third international consensus definitions for sepsis and septic shock (Sepsis-3). JAMA, 315(8), 801–810.
Cite this entry: Kurutkan, M. N. (2026). Sepsis. In The Health Topics glossary. https://healthtopic.org/glossary/sepsis/
Articles that discuss this concept
15 articles on The Health Topics use this concept; the 12 that use it most are listed. The list updates as new articles are published.
- Predictive Quality: An Introduction 101 12
- The Limits Of Explicit Criteria: An Epistemic-Tension Analysis of Donabedian’s 1981 Text, a Reverse Reading Through AGREE–GRADE–NICE, and a Counterfactual Interpretation for the Machine-Learning Era 5
- Martha’s Rule: Enhancing Patient Safety Through Second Opinions 3
- The Frenemy Concept: An Academic Framework Between Amity and Enmity 3
- Do Hospital Accreditation Standards Rest on Solid Evidence? A Systematic Evidence Mapping of 1,599 Standards Reveals Structural Tensions 2
- Resource, Quality and Data-Driven Management in the Oncology Hospital: An Introduction (101) for Physicians 2
- AI in Healthcare: Enhancing Patient Safety Through Risk Management 1
- Reducing CAUTIs: A Six-Year Quality Improvement Review 1
- The Cost of Unsafe Medical Care 1
- Plague as a Bioweapon: Medical and Public Health Management 1
- Female Genital Mutilation: Anatomy, Complications, and Alternatives 1
- AI Against AMR: A Bibliometric Review 1