Sepsis is responsible for significant morbidity, mortality, and costs to patients in the healthcare system. This article describes an evidence-based protocol that is based on consensus criteria from the best available literature to standardize treatment for patients with sepsis.

Sepsis is a complex condition that is often life threatening. It is characterized by hematological derangements and a profound inflammatory response to an infection or injury. Despite recent advances in critical care, sepsis affects more than 750000 patients and accounts for 215000 deaths in the United States each year, at a cost of more than $16 billion.1 Mortality in septic shock has decreased only slightly between 1970 and the late 1990s; it remains the most frequent cause of death in noncardiac intensive care units (ICUs). Septicemia is currently ranked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the 10th leading cause of death in the United States.2 (p27)...

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