An interim policy for the administration of low dose glucocorticoids should has been developed by the Surviving Sepsis Campaign to help teams that presently do not have such a policy to comply with the Severe Sepsis Quality Indicators.  The policy was designed to account for the best known science regarding use of low-dose steroids and provides the user choice in whether to use glucocorticoids based upon several known contraindications and the option to declare other relative contraindications.

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This tool may be modified by individual hospitals as the ICU staff sees fit.  However, the goal of creating such a policy is that it should be applied to each patient with severe sepsis to determine whether low dose steroids should be given [see the related Sepsis Management Bundle element "Administer Low-Dose Steroids by a Standard Policy"]. 

The associated measure for compliance with delivery of low-dose steroids requires documentation that such a policy exists and was followed for each patient in order to obtain credit. Credit may be assigned for this indicator even if steroids are not delivered as long as a standardized ICU policy exists and was followed.