qSOFA Score
Identifies non-ICU patients with infection at high mortality risk
- Highest activation tier
- Mandatory
- How it is scored
- Scored in code; a detected disagreeing draft value is flagged for correction
- Care settings
- Emergency department, ICU, Inpatient
Calculate
Answer every item. The result uses the same scoring code Scribeable runs in notes. Nothing you enter leaves this page.
Altered mental status (GCS below 15)
4 to 80 breaths/min.
30 to 300 mmHg.
Enter the values above to see the result.
When it activates
Scribeable activates a calculator from the encounter. The qSOFA Score can activate when the transcript or pasted chart context documents any of these:
- Suspected infection/sepsis
- Sepsis screening
- Floor patient deterioration
- ICU triage decision
A coded diagnosis can also activate it. ICD-10 prefixes carried by the registry: A41, R65.
Note-type scope: it activates on notes whose subject resolves to critical care, emergency medicine, hospital medicine, pulmonology. A note that resolves to another subject does not carry it even when the clinician's specialty matches; a note with no resolvable subject (a generic consultation) falls back to the specialty match.
Inputs the note needs
3 inputs. Each is resolved from the transcript, the pasted chart context and charted labs; an input marked "asks you" is requested as a clarification when it is undocumented.
| Input | Type | Unit / options | Guidance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Altered mental status (GCS <15) | exam | New altered mentation — any GCS below 15 (qSOFA: 1 point). | |
| RR >=22 | vital | /min | Scored 1 point when 22/min or greater. |
| SBP <=100 | vital | mmHg | Scored 1 point when 100 mmHg or below. |
Scoring
1 point each: Altered mentation, RR>=22, SBP<=100. Score 0-3.
AMS Altered mental status (GCS <15) + RR≥22 RR >=22 + SBP≤100 SBP <=100
Interpretation
>=2: High risk for in-hospital mortality (3-14x increase). Note: qSOFA predicts mortality, does NOT diagnose sepsis.
Evidence
Sources carried in Scribeable's citation registry for this calculator.
- Third International Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock (Sepsis-3)Sepsis-3 (Singer et al. 2016) · 2016 · SCCM/ESICM · Consensus · link last verified 2026-03-23
How Scribeable handles it in the note
When an encounter activates the qSOFA Score at the mandatory tier, Scribeable resolves its inputs from the transcript, the pasted chart context and any charted labs, and asks you for a missing input you can supply before the note is finalised. Bedside-exam and separately ordered study values are not requested one input at a time; a calculator that carries a combined clarification question may still put that single question to you.
The score is computed in code from the resolved inputs, not recalled by the language model. If the draft states a qSOFA Score value that disagrees with the computed one, the disagreement is flagged to the second drafting pass, which is instructed to correct the score and its interpretation before you see the note.
Classified as a mandatory rule-out score: a missed result carries acute harm, so the activation filter never approves it on uncertainty.
See it activate on your own encounter
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