Implementation of Bedside Pediatric Early Warning Systems (PEWS)
- Conditions
- Clinically Deteriorating Paediatric Patients
- Interventions
- Other: Bedside Paediatric Early Warning System (Bedside PEWS)
- Registration Number
- NCT00961727
- Lead Sponsor
- The Hospital for Sick Children
- Brief Summary
Timely identification, referral and treatment of children who are clinically deteriorating while admitted to hospital wards is a fundamental element of inpatient care. In community hospitals, advantages including greater continuity of inpatient-outpatient care, improved geographic access for families, and lower healthcare system costs, may be undermined if children with evolving critical illness are not recognized and transferred in a timely manner. The Bedside Paediatric Early Warning System (Bedside PEWS) is a system of care designed to augment existing expertise and to provide a safety net for children who are clinically deteriorating while admitted to hospital wards. The Bedside PEWS is comprised of 4 components; \[1\] an expert derived, multi-centre validated severity of illness score, \[2\] an inter-professionally developed documentation record into which the severity of illness score is embedded, \[3\] a series of score-matched care recommendations based on the opinions of over 280 paediatric health care professionals, and \[4\] an educator-developed education-implementation program.
- Detailed Description
We will be performing a prospective observational study of care outcomes, physician workload and frontline staff perceptions before and after the implementation of Bedside PEWS in a community paediatric hospital. We plan to evaluate the outcomes of patients who were admitted to the 22-bed paediatric inpatient unit and were less than 18 years of age at hospital admission, and the healthcare professionals caring for them during their inpatient stay.
Recruitment & Eligibility
- Status
- COMPLETED
- Sex
- All
- Target Recruitment
- 200
- All patients admitted to the paediatric inpatient unit at Credit Valley Hospital from June 2008-December 2008
- Patients over 18 years of age
Study & Design
- Study Type
- OBSERVATIONAL
- Study Design
- Not specified
- Arm && Interventions
Group Intervention Description PEWS System of Care Bedside Paediatric Early Warning System (Bedside PEWS) -
- Primary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Significant clinical deterioration events -3 months, +2months, and+5months after implementation
- Secondary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method 'stat' calls to the respiratory therapist 3 months before and 5 months after implementation 'stat' calls to the paediatrician 3 months before and 5 months after implementation immediate calls to treat near or actual cardiopulmonary arrest - 'code-blue' 3 months before and 5 months after implementation
Trial Locations
- Locations (1)
The Hospital for Sick Children
🇨🇦Toronto, Ontario, Canada