Correlation Between Monitoring Frequency and Clinical Deterioration in Hospitalized Patients
Overview
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Intervention
- Not specified
- Conditions
- In-hospital Deterioration
- Sponsor
- Bispebjerg Hospital
- Enrollment
- 600
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- Number of patients with an EWS >/= 2
- Status
- Completed
- Last Updated
- 11 years ago
Overview
Brief Summary
Acute deterioration among hospitalised patient can result in serious adverse events like cardiac arrest, unexpected death or unanticipated intensive care unit (ICU) admission. Most events are preceeded by deteriorating vital signs, and potentially avoidable.
To detect and treat hospitalised at-risk patients early an early warning score (EWS) was introduced at the investigator site. EWS measures of a number of physiological parameters that are aggregated to a common score, that directs monitoring frequency, clinical interventions and competency of the provider.
Patients with low scores (0 - 1) are monitored every 12th hour and seldom experience serious adverse events. The optimal monitoring frequency for this group is unknown, and presently based on a compromise between patient safety and work load issues.
The aim of the present study is to explore if an 8 hourly monitoring interval (intervention) is correlated with a better outcome than 12 hour intervals (control), based on the number of patients that deteriorate to a higher EWS 24 hours after hospital admission in each group.
Detailed Description
Acute deterioration among hospitalised patient can result in serious adverse events like cardiac arrest, unexpected death or unanticipated intensive care unit (ICU) admission. Most events are preceeded by deteriorating vital signs, and potentially avoidable. To detect and treat hospitalised patients at risk of clinical deterioration in a timely manner, an early warning score (EWS) was introduced at the investigator site. EWS includes measures for respiratory rate, arterial hemoglobin oxygen saturation, pulse rate, systolic blood pressure, level of consciousness according to AVPU score, temperature, and whether a patient receives supplementary oxygen. Each vital sign can be assigned between 0 to 3 points (supplementary oxygen 0 or 2) depending on how much it deviates from a predefined threshold; the values are added to an aggregated score from 0 to 20, higher scores indicating more severe disease. An escalation protocol that directs the type of clinical response and competency of the provider according to EWS triggers was also introduced as an integrated part of the system. Patients with low scores (0 - 1) are monitored every 12th hour and seldom experience serious adverse events. The optimal monitoring frequency for this group is unknown, and presently based on a compromise between patient safety and work load issues. The aim of the present study is to explore if an 8 hourly monitoring interval (intervention) is correlated with a better outcome than 12 hour intervals (control) in the group of patients that have an EWS of 0 or 1 on admission. Deterioration is based on the number of patients that deteriorate to a higher EWS 24 hours after the first EWS is measured. Since serious adverse events in this population are rare the primary outcome is clinical deterioration defined as number of patients with elevated EWS \>/= 2 in each group, 24 hours after admission to the hospital. This is a cluster-randomized, non-blinded, pragmatic, interventional study of acutely admitted, adult patients to surgical or medical wards at our hospital.
Investigators
John Asger Petersen
M.D., Consultant in Critical Care Medicine
Bispebjerg Hospital
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria
- •first EWS on admission = 0 or 1
- •age \>/ = 18 years
Exclusion Criteria
- •chronically elevated EWS
- •terminal disease and comfort care only
- •conditions that warrant closer observation according to hospital guidelines
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Number of patients with an EWS >/= 2
Time Frame: 24 hours after first EWS after admission
Clinical deterioration is correlated to elevated EWS
Secondary Outcomes
- EWS >/ = 2(48 hours)
- Number of serious adverse events during first 72 hours of admission(72 hours)
- Length of hospital stay(30 days)
- Number of patients with an aggregated score of EWS >/= 5 or >/= 7(24 to 48 hours)
- Mortality(72 hours and 30 days)
- Number of patients with an individual score of EWS >/= 3(24 to 48 hours after first EWS on admission)