Presentations of adult septic patients in the prehospital setting as recorded by emergency medical services: a mixed methods analysis

Table 1 Characteristics of patients in the content analysis admitted during 2012 and patients in the quantification of keywords admitted during 2013. Characteristics of 80 septic patients admitted 2012, included in the content analysis, and 359 septic patients admitted 2013, included in the quantification of keywords^a

	80 patients in the content analysis admitted during 2012^b		359 patients in the quantification of keywords admitted during 2013^b
Variable	Median (IQR)	Number (%)	Median (IQR)	Number (%)
Age, yr	73 (63–84)	80/80 (100.0)	78 (68–86)	359/359 (100.0)
Gender
-male		44/80 (55.0)		198/359 (55.2)
Severe sepsis		48/77^c (62.3)		203/352^c (57.7)
Substance abuse^d		5/80 (6.3)		22/359 (6.1)
In-hospital mortality
-total population		18/80 (22.5)		94/359 (26.2)
-severe sepsis		11/48 (22.9)		73/203 (36.0)
-non-severe sepsis		4/29 (13.8)		19/149 (12.8)
EMS clinical judgment sepsis		11 (13.8)		68 (18.9)

IQR = Interquartil range, EMS = Emergency Medical Services
^aPrimary keywords (codes and subcategories derived from the content analysis of septic patients arriving by EMS and admitted to Södersjukhuset during 2012) or combined keywords (consisting of several primary or combined keywords)
^bThere was a significant difference in age between the two groups (P-value 0.03). No other significant differences in characteristics were observed. 2-sided P-values were calculated by Fischer’s exact test for categorical variables and by Mann Whitney U test for numerical variables
^cNumber of patients with enough documented information to determine whether severe sepsis or not
^dDefined as drug abuse, alcohol overconsumption and all other terms indicating substance abuse such as “lives in a home for addicts”, “patient at an outdoor clinic for substance abuse”

ISSN: 1757-7241