Impact of Race and Ethnicity, Income, Language, and Insurance on Timeliness of Pediatric Emergency Department Sepsis Care.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to measure the association of race and ethnicity, preferred language, income, and insurance status on process and outcomes measures of sepsis care in a pediatric emergency department (PED).

METHODS

A single-center, retrospective cohort study was conducted at the only tertiary-care children's urban hospital with a PED in New Mexico. Children aged 2 months to younger than 18 years old who were evaluated in the PED from July 2020 to July 2023 and met sepsis criteria by ICD-10 codes were screened for inclusion. Demographic data and outcomes including median time to fluid bolus, time to antibiotics, PED length of stay (LOS), and hospital LOS were collected from the electronic medical records.

RESULTS

There was no significant difference in time to sepsis interventions by demographic factors studied. Patients who reported preferring a language other than English had longer PED LOS (350 min, P = 0.024) compared with English speakers (245 min), but there were no other significant differences in PED and hospital LOS by demographic factors.

CONCLUSIONS

There were no associations between race and ethnicity, income, preferred language, insurance status, and time to sepsis interventions. PED LOS was significantly different by reported preferred language. This overall lack of differences may be attributed to the local context of the study, which may not be generalizable to other areas. Further research is warranted to investigate processes that lead to similar care and barriers to timely interventions.