None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Patient adverse events occur in up to 17% of all hospital admissions. One contributing factor is the failure to recognise and appropriately manage deteriorating patients on the general ward. The ability to detect early deterioration allows early appropriate intervention and reduces unplanned admissions to intensive care unit (ICU) and unexpected deaths. In this study, a new ward observation chart will be installed into four wards (2 at The Canberra Hospital [TCH], 2 at Calvary Hospital [CH]), which will allow the recording of a modified early warning score. High scores will automatically trigger the nurse at the bedside to call an appropriately qualified medical practitioner for a timely review of the patient and initiate earlier management. We will review the morbidity and mortality of patients before and after this intervention
Interventions
4 months duration (February to June 2007).
The installation of a new observation chart into 4 wards (two at The Canberra Hospital and two at Calvary Hosptial) which was colour coded for a modified early warning score.
The modified early warning score was utilised as a track and trigger system whereby if the score reached more than 4, a junior doctor was contacted by the bedside nurse to review and manage the patient within a 30 minute timeframe. The Medical Emergency Team (MET) could be contacte
4 months duration (February to June 2007). The installation of a new observation chart into 4 wards (two at The Canberra Hospital and two at Calvary Hosptial) which was colour coded for a modified early warning score. The modified early warning score was utilised as a track and trigger system whereby if the score reached more than 4, a junior doctor was contacted by the bedside nurse to review and manage the patient within a 30 minute timeframe. The Medical Emergency Team (MET) could be contacted if the patient fulfilled standard MET criteria. In order for the wards to be part of the pilot program, more than 50% of the healthcare workers needed to have undertaken a novel education package, COMPASS. This was a program that bought physiology to the bedside and informed people of the use of the SBAR communication tool. (Situation, Background, Assessment, Response). The data will be collected from case records of the patients in a deidentified manner.
Sponsors
Mr Mark Cormack
Study design
Allocation
Non-randomised trial
Intervention model
Single group
Primary purpose
Prevention
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Admission to four pilot wards Two from The Canberra Hospital Two from Calvary Hospital ACT
Exclusion criteria
Patients admitted for palliative care Aged under 18 years old
Outcome results
None listed