We performed a systematic review of disparities in sepsis care. The search strategy and inclusion and exclusion criteria were defined a priori. A medical librarian searched the entire MEDLINE (PubMed), EMBASE and Cinahl databases prior to 2013. One author reviewed all abstracts and a second author reviewed 10% of all abstracts for agreement. Both reviewers independently reviewed each included article using an explicit study review tool. We included studies that met the following inclusion criteria: ED or ICU setting; disparities due to race, language, gender, socioeconomic status, insurance status or geography; process of care measures (antibiotics, lactate, i.v. fluid resuscitation, central line placement, vasopressor use) or outcome measures (mortality, length of stay, complications, costs). We excluded studies involving organ-specific infectious conditions, pediatric populations, case reports, and review articles.