Abstract
Clinical Early Warning Scores are tools intended to alert clinical staff to possible future clinical deterioration, often related to the onset of sepsis. Since their introduction, they have increased greatly in popularity. Their operation is conceptually simple: an elevated early warning score triggers a formal assessment by the responsible clinician. While the best-known system is the Royal College of Physicians National Early Warning Score (NEWS), a number of other scores are in use, such as an adaptation known as the Modified Early Warning System (MEWS) or warning systems for pediatric patients (PEWS). However, while promising, such instruments need to be studied in more detail to better characterize their eventual role in monitoring hospital patients. In particular, a central question concerns the identification of the best system (NEWS, MEWS, PEWS etc.) for a given clinical population (pediatric, trauma, prehospital etc.).
Highlights
Warning Scores are clinical instruments designed to alert medical staff to impending clinical deterioration
The application of Early Warning Systems is simple: an elevated early warning score triggers a formal assessment by a caregiver; sometimes the warning is even delivered automatically via a page or SMS sent to the responsible clinician
The authors found that after the introduction of the Modified Early Warning System (MEWS) system, High Dependency Unit (HDU) admissions increased from 14% to 21% while Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admissions decreased from 11% to 5 without any deterioration in patient mortality
Summary
Clinical Early Warning Scores are tools intended to alert clinical staff to possible future clinical deterioration, often related to the onset of sepsis. Since their introduction, they have increased greatly in popularity. While the best-known system is the Royal College of Physicians National Early Warning Score (NEWS), a number of other scores are in use, such as an adaptation known as the Modified Early Warning System (MEWS) or warning systems for pediatric patients (PEWS). While promising, such instruments need to be studied in more detail to better characterize their eventual role in monitoring hospital patients.
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