Below is the LITFL summary of another look at the importance of early ABx administration in septic patients. Septic and especially severely septic patients should be taken to room 9, obtain blood cultures promptly, and initiate antibiotics as early as possible.

Ferrer R et al. Empiric antibiotic treatment reduces mortality in severe sepsis and septic shock from the first hour: results from a guideline-based performance improvement program. Crit Care Med 2014; 42: 1749-55. PMID: 24717459

• This retrospective analysis of prospective surviving sepsis data of patients admitted to the ICU with severe sepsis found that delays in antibiotic administration resulted in a concomitant increase in hospital mortality. Though the results are compelling with a linear relationship between time to administration and hospital mortality discovered it is key to interpret this study with caution as the data are uncontrolled for the antibiotic administration to time metric primarily studied by this paper. Multiple potential confounders exist that might account for the observed relationship that should be studied prospectively. In the meantime it makes reasonable sense to administer antibiotics as soon as possible after the actual discovery of real sepsis.  
• Recommended by: William Paolo