Automated Early Warning Scoring on Surgical Normal Wards

Detection of Deteriorating Patients on Peripheral Surgical Wards by an Automated Notification System

Establishment of early warning systems in hospitals was strongly recommended in recent guidelines to detect deteriorating patients early and direct them to adequate care. Upon meeting of predefined trigger criteria Medical Emergency Teams (MET) should be directed to these patients. The present study analyses the effect of introduction of an automated early warning and trigger system on two peripheral wards hosting a highly complex surgical patient cohort.

The deployment of an electronic monitoring and notification system is accompanied by data acquisition over 12 months (intervention) using four routine databases: Hospital patient data management, anesthesia database, local data of the German Resuscitation Registry, and measurement logs of the automated patient monitoring and alert system (intervention period only). A preceding time period of 12 months served as control.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Admission to one of the participating wards

Exclusion Criteria:

• none