Athanasios Alegakis (Greece)
University of Crete StatisticsAuthor Of 1 Presentation
PEDIATRIC EARLY WARNING SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION SUCCESSFULLY PREDICT INPATIENT CARE AND OUTCOME
Abstract
Background and Aims
Early signs of clinical worsening in children are often missed. To describe criteria relating to admission and discharge to inpatient pediatric context and evaluate potential clinical indices in predicting deterioration and triggering timely interventions.
Methods
All children aged <16 years attended pediatric ER and admitted to ward from July to October 2017 were prospectively enrolled. Predictors, such as demographics, comorbidities, vital signs, and Pediatric Early Warning System (PEWS) scoring were associated with clinical outcome after 48 hours. Data collected in a spreadsheet database and analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics software.
Results
Our study comprised 413 patient visits. Mean age was 5.3±4.5, 216 (52.3%) were males. Mean PEWS score was 2.2±1.6; high-risk patients (scored ≧5) were 34 (8.2%). Majority of subjects (251 cases, 60.8%) exhibited improvement after 48 hours. No death was reported. Improvement was noted in 175 (71.7%) low-risk, 69 (51.1%) medium-risk and 7 (20.6%) high-risk subjects. There was a statistically significant difference between risk proportion and 48-hour outcome (p<0.001).
Conclusions
Our study shows that PEWS performs well in predicting hospital admission and outcome. PEWS may be embraced as a part of everyday clinical practice and be well-accepted in a wider safety culture by staff.