Preventable deaths involving sepsis in England and Wales, 2013-2022: a systematic case series of coroners' reports.

PURPOSE: Coroners' Prevention of Future Death (PFDs) reports are an under-utilized resource to learn about preventable deaths in England and Wales. We aimed to identify sepsis-related PFDs and explore the causes and concerns in this subset of preventable sepsis deaths. METHODS: Four thousand three hundred five reports were acquired from the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary website between July 2013 and November 2022, which were screened for sepsis. Demographic information, coroners concerns and responses to these reports were extracted and analyzed, including a detailed paediatric subgroup analysis. RESULTS: Two hundred sixty-five reports (6% of total PFDs) involved sepsis-related deaths. The most common cause of death in these reports was "sepsis without septic shock" (42%) and the most common site of infection was the respiratory system (18%) followed by gastrointestinal (16%) and skin (13%) infections. Specific pathogens were named in few reports (27%). Many deaths involved multimorbid patients (49%) or those with recent surgery (26%). Coroners named 773 individual concerns, the most frequent were: a failure to keep accurate records or notes (28%), failure in communication or handover (27%) or failure to recognize risk factors or comorbidities (20%). Paediatric cases frequently reported issues with sepsis screening tools (26%). Sepsis PFDs resulted in 421 individual reports being sent, of which 45% received no response. Most organisations who did respond acknowledged concerns and initiated a new change (74%). CONCLUSION: Sepsis-related PFDs provide valuable insights into preventable causes of sepsis and identify important sources of improvement in sepsis care. Wider dissemination of findings is vital to learn from these reports.

Preventable deaths involving falls in England and Wales, 2013-22: a systematic case series of coroners' reports.

BACKGROUND: Falls in older people are common, leading to significant harm including death. Coroners have a duty to report cases where action should be taken to prevent future deaths, but dissemination of their findings remains poor. OBJECTIVE: To identify preventable fall-related deaths, classify coroner concerns and explore organisational responses. DESIGN: A retrospective systematic case series of coroners' Prevention of Future Deaths (PFD) reports, from July 2013 (inception) to November 2022. SETTING: England and Wales. METHODS: Reproducible data collection methods were used to web-scrape and read PFD reports. Demographic information, coroner concerns and responses from organisations were extracted and descriptive statistics used to synthesise data. RESULTS: Five hundred and twenty-seven PFDs (12.5% of PFDs) involved a fall that contributed to death. These deaths predominantly affected older people (median 82 years) in the community (72%), with subsequent death in hospital (70.8%). A high proportion of cases experienced fractures (51.6%), major bleeding (35.9%) or head injury (38.7%). Coroners frequently raised concerns regarding falls risks assessments (20.9%), failures in communication (20.3%) and documentation issues (17.5%). Only 56.7% of PFDs received a response from organisations to whom they were addressed. Organisations tended to produce new protocols (58.5%), improve training (44.6%) and commence audits (34.3%) in response to PFDs. CONCLUSIONS: One in eight preventable deaths in England and Wales involved a fall. Addressing concerns raised by coroners should improve falls prevention and care following falls especially for older adults, but the poor response rate may indicate that lessons are not being learned. Wider dissemination of PFD findings may help reduce preventable fall-related deaths in the future.

Can medical students do anything useful to support the antimicrobial resistance agenda?

The emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a current and future challenge for patients and clinicians, but the role of medical students in combating AMR is not well established. The most important role for students would be supporting the agenda of antimicrobial stewardship (AMS), which is an effective and evidence-based set of actions that mitigate the emergence of resistance. Medical students can be seen as unlikely activists, who have a strong track record of becoming activists for other causes. If they could extend this activist role to AMR/AMS, they could have outsized impact. In order to achieve this, it is imperative that students begin to organize in their own institutions, in collaboration with those working in other disciplines.