Physicians’ knowledge and sepsis guide implementation in tertiary care hospitals in China

BACKGROUND: This study was designed to investigate the extent to which physicians involved in sepsis management understand and adopt sepsis guidelines in clinical practice. The overarching aim of this study was to generate ideas for developing more effective training methods to help physicians apply the guidelines in patient management. METHODS: Physicians working in a tertiary care hospital, primarily in the emergency and critical care departments, were recruited into the survey. They were asked to fill questionnaires which were designed to collect sepsis score, diagnostic indicators, fluid resuscitation, antibiotics choice, access to knowledge and training, as well as implementation of sepsis guidelines in clinical diagnosis and treatment. RESULTS: Overall, the response rate was 625/661 (94.5%). The investigate shows the basic information of all physicians who participated in the answer sheet, including their work department, professional title and whether their hospital was a teaching hospital. Significant differences were identified among the physicians in terms of method of acquiring sepsis guidelines, the impact of study guidelines on clinical diagnosis and treatment, efficiency of training methods, cognition of fluid resuscitation in patients with sepsis, the cognition of sepsis rehydration principles, selection of antibiotics for patients with sepsis, the basis for antibiotic selection, among other variables. CONCLUSION: Although majority of physicians involved in tertiary care hospital understand the contents of sepsis-3 guidelines, the clinical implementation of the guidelines in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with sepsis is highly heterogeneous. Thus, there is need to develop standardized training for physicians involved in sepsis diagnosis and treatment. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12909-022-03472-x.