Did you know? 300 children in B.C. are diagnosed with sepsis annually. Though sepsis is rare, even in 2023, mortality is still possible for children with the condition; developing from common infections, untreated sepsis can lead to organ damage and death in both children and adults. Luckily, serious illness and death is preventable if sepsis is recognized early by parents, and screened for/treated promptly by health-care providers.
To help ensure that sepsis is recognized quickly, BC Children’s Hospital, Child Health BC (CHBC), and the regional health authorities collaborated to establish new provincial resources in a convenient toolkit for use with pediatric patients presenting to emergency departments (EDs) and/or urgent care centres.
Concurrently, the team is raising awareness to parents and caregivers about recognizing symptoms of sepsis and immediately seeking medical care.
Sepsis is the body’s extreme response to an existing infection. It’s a leading cause of preventable death and long-term morbidity for children. Sepsis is a medical emergency and should be treated as soon as possible in an ER or urgent care facility.
Symptoms may be difficult to recognize, as they can change quickly. The campaign, and the resources in the toolkit, emphasize that knowing the symptoms of sepsis beforehand and getting medical help as soon as possible when these symptoms are recognized can save a child’s life.
The toolkit was created primarily to educate parents and caregivers: these materials will help them learn what to do when a child is suspected of having, or diagnosed with sepsis.
The resources provide recommendations to guide best practice for recognition and treatment of pediatric sepsis, suspected sepsis or septic shock.
The toolkit was created to help standardize practice of pediatric sepsis care across B.C. Types of materials in the toolkit include recognition and management guidelines, a screening tool, clinical care algorithm, and guidance for health authority implementation.
For parents and caregivers, an infographic and an information booklet called When your Child has Sepsis: Information about Sepsis, Care and Recovery is included on the page.
Currently, the team is working with Provincial Language Services to have the parent information translated into additional languages. The translated versions will be posted on the Pediatric Sepsis Toolkit webpage once available.
Next steps involve CHBC evaluating the provincial implementation of the toolkit and collecting feedback over the next six months to support the evaluation. The results will then be reviewed by the provincial working group.
Visit Child Health BC’s pediatric sepsis webpage for the provincial guideline and accompanying toolkit containing resources and implementation support tools.
For questions, please contact chbcadmin@cw.bc.ca.
