An ICU implements a sepsis screening tool that alerts nursing staff when a patient meets SIRS criteria. The tool flags many patients who do not have s...

Question

An ICU implements a sepsis screening tool that alerts nursing staff when a patient meets SIRS criteria. The tool flags many patients who do not have sepsis (false positives). What metric describes the proportion of flagged patients who actually have sepsis?

Accepted Answer

Positive predictive value (PPV) - the proportion of patients flagged by the screening tool who actually have the condition (true positives / [true positives + false positives]); in sepsis screening, SIRS criteria have high sensitivity but low PPV because SIRS is non-specific and triggered by many non-infectious conditions

Answer

Sensitivity

Answer

Specificity

Answer

Negative predictive value

Answer

Likelihood ratio

uk-fficm MCQ (SBA): Screening Tool Performance

An ICU implements a sepsis screening tool that alerts nursing staff when a patient meets SIRS criteria. The tool flags many patients who do not have sepsis (false positives). What metric describes the proportion of flagged patients who actually have sepsis?