Prospective evaluation of a pediatric inpatient early warning scoring system.
OBJECTIVE
The present study evaluated the use of the Pediatric Early Warning Score (PEWS) for detecting clinical deterioration among hospitalized children.


METHODS
A prospective, descriptive study design was used. The tool was used to score 2,979 patients admitted to a single medical unit of a pediatric hospital over a 12-month period.


RESULTS
PEWS discriminated between children who required transfer to the pediatric intensive care unit and those who did not require transfer (area under the curve = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.84-0.94, p < .001).


CONCLUSIONS
The PEWS tool was found to be a reliable and valid scoring system to identify children at risk for clinical deterioration.
Patient Services, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA. karen.tucker@cchmc.org
Karen M
KM
Tucker
Tracy L
TL
Brewer
Rachel B
RB
Baker
Brenda
B
Demeritt
Michael T
MT
Vossmeyer
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D015278:Intensive Care Units, Pediatric; D009730:Nursing Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D010360:Patient Transfer; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012131:Respiratory Insufficiency / Q000517:prevention & control*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index