This dataset is extracted from an ambulance quality registry of patients with suspected sepsis managed by the ambulance department of the University Hospital of North Norway. The dataset contains data from patients with suspected sepsis who were subject to blood culture sampling before or after transport to hospital by ambulance from May 2018 to August 2022. The dataset was extracted to conduct a study on the value of blood cultures from patients with suspected sepsis drawn by ambulance personnel. The dataset contains demographic data and clinical data from both prehospital and in-hospital setting. The Regional Committee for Medical and Health Research Ethics Northern Norway (application number 685406) approved the present study.

Related article abstract Purpose: To describe the epidemiology of blood cultures (BCs) drawn from patients with suspected sepsis by a rural ambulance service. Methods: Patients were included if they had clinically suspected sepsis and at least one BC was drawn. Variables associated with positive BCs were identified with logistic regression, culture results before and after ambulance antimicrobial therapy were compared and the susceptibility to empirical antimicrobial therapy in bacterial isolates was determined. Results: Among 392 included patients, sepsis severity scores were higher when BCs were positive than negative, but there was no significant difference in 30-day all-cause mortality between BC negative and positive patients. In 47 patients ambulance blood cultures were positive (47/347 (13,5%)). Fever (OR 1.54, 95% CI 1.11-2.15) and age (OR 1.01, 95% CI 1.00-1.04) was associated with higher odds of positive cultures, whereas lower respiratory tract infection was associated with lower odds of positive cultures (OR 0.10, 95% CI 0.04-0.30). In 205 patients who had both ambulance and hospital BCs drawn and received ambulance antimicrobial therapy, only the ambulance BCs were positive in 16 patients, whereas in 4 patients only hospital cultures were positive. Bacterial isolates from positive BCs were susceptible to the empirical antimicrobial regimen in 80% of cases. Conclusion: Positive ambulance BCs were associated with higher sepsis severity, and ambulance cultures were most useful in febrile patients with a suspected focus of infection other than the lower airways. Repeated BCs after hospital admission added only limited diagnostic value if an adequate ambulance BC had already been drawn.

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