MEMC - GREAT Rome (Italy), 05/09/2015 - 09/09/2015
Topic: Administration, Health Policy, and Legislation T01
SEWS RELIABILITY TO PICK UP THE ACUTELY ILL PATIENTS IN A BUSY EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT M.A. Majeed 1, A. Naveed 1, S. Imam 1, G. Giovannetti 1 1
University Hospital Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
Background: Early warning systems (EWS) are bedside tools used to assess basic physiological parameters to identify patients with potential or established critical illness.1 Current evidence suggests that they may predict risk of intensive care admission, death and length of hospital stay. OBJECTIVES: To establish whether a ‘SEWS’ scoring of >= 4 on patient's arrival to A&E is useful in predicting critically ill, likelihood of patient deterioration and need for direct ITU admission. Methods: We performed a retrospective single center cohort study including 500 patients attended the Emergency Department of University Hospital Birmingham during December-November 2013. It was decided from previous experience to define a SEWS of 4 or more as a “critical score”. Primary endpoints were ITU/HDU admissions, admission to a non-critical ward, discharged, self discharged, transfer to another hospital and death within 1 month of the admission. Inclusion criteria: • Adult patients were included. Exclusion criteria: • Under 16 years old. Results: We went through the notes of 500 patients. Overall, 49.4% (247) of patients were male, and 46.6% (233) were female. The mean age of patients was of 54 years. 21.2 % of patients were admitted to ITU/CCU, of this only 43% had a sews of 4 or more on arrival. Meanwhile this was true for 8.6% of the 39.4% ward admissions, and 2.2% of the 36.2% patients that were discharged home from A&E. Conclusions: A patient with a SEWS of <4 still has got more than 50% chance of being admitted to an Intensive Care Unit. The results show that SEWS is a rather sensitive tool but less specific in picking up acutely ill patients. It might be useful supporting the more inexperienced doctors and nurses in assessing the risk of deterioration for their patients, initiating early and focused investigations and treatment. DISCUSSION: Currently, there are several hundred unique yet similar EWS systems in use worldwide. Our results indicatethat SEWS variables in isolation may have little or no practicalusefulness in detecting critically ill, patient deterioration or intensive care unit admission.