A tool to support the clinical decision based on risk of death in hospital admissions

Abstract

Abstract This article presents a computational tool that calculates the risk of death, based on the study of comorbidity. The data represent patients hospitalized in general hospitals of the region of Ribeirao Preto, Brazil. The risk of death was estimated by calculating the Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) and age-adjusted Charlson comorbidity index (ACCI). The CCI employs weights from 0 to 6 in selected comorbidities. The higher the score of the patient, the greater the chance of dying. For ACCI, in addition to comorbidities, more scores is incorporated according to the patient’s age - for each decade above 50 years. For the demonstration of the tool, we obtained the distribution of cases studied by CCI and ACCI. The tool that assists in the manipulation of the CCI and ACCI calculations has allowed real-time analysis of hospitalizations, thus providing a good aid for health decision-making.