Clinical Judgment vs. Screening Tools for Sepsis

The study compares the accuracy of physician gestalt with established screening tools for predicting sepsis in critically ill patients. It highlights that clinical judgment outperforms common decision rules such as SIRS and SOFA when evaluated in a hyper-acute setting. The authors argue that clinical judgment should not be dismissed, as emergency physicians make critical decisions based on a combination of experience and patient presentation. However, the paper raises questions about the validity of retrospective diagnostic tools, advocating for reliance on real-time clinician evaluations.