Strategies that reduce the time to antimicrobial administration, such as the availability of premix antimicrobials (PMAs) in the emergency department (ED), may better align with the goals of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign and improve outcomes in septic patients. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of antimicrobial preparation on time to administration in septic patients located in the emergency department (ED).

This was a retrospective, single-center, cohort study and adult patients with a diagnosis of sepsis who received at least one initial intravenous (IV) antimicrobial in the ED were included. Time to complete an empiric antimicrobial therapy was defined as the time between prescriber order entry and the infusion initiation time of the final antimicrobial agent of a patient’s antimicrobial regimen. Appropriate, empiric antimicrobial therapy was based on treatment recommendations by nationally accepted guidelines for the specific indication.

The first antimicrobial was initiated earlier when available as a PMA preparation (median (IQR): premix 25 minutes (16.5-42.3) vs. non-premix 46 minutes (20-102), p=0.027). When comparing complete, empiric antimicrobial regimen administration, there was no difference in time to administration between regimens containing one or more non-premix antimicrobials and regimens containing all PMAs (median (IQR): premix 69 minutes (21-115) vs. non-premix 65 minutes (38.5-133.8); p=0.455).

PMA preparations significantly reduced time to administration of the first antimicrobial agent for septic patients treated in the ED, but time to administration of subsequent antimicrobials were not improved.