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The Use of a Modified Pediatric Early Warning Score to Assess Stability of Pediatric Patients During Transport
- Source :
- Pediatric Emergency Care. 28:878-882
- Publication Year :
- 2012
- Publisher :
- Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health), 2012.
-
Abstract
- Objective: Pediatric early warning scores (PEWSs) have been used effectively in limited patient care areas. Children's Transport, at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, transports approximately 5000 children annually. In an effort to consistently assess patient acuity and the impact of our team's interventions, we instituted a modified "transport PEWS" (TPEWS). Methods: The existing PEWS was modified to reflect the transport environment. A retrospective chart review was conducted of 100 consecutive children transported by Children's Transport in March 2009. Transport PEWS given during triage by the dispatch center (TPEWS tri ), TPEWS calculated at referring facility by the team (TPEWS ref ), and final TPEWS at the accepting institution (TPEWS acc ) were compared. Results: Eighty-six patients were transported by ground. The median age was 50.4 months. Sixty patients (60%) received some intervention from the transport team. Median TPEWS ref was 3 (0-9) upon initial assessment, and TPEWS acc was 2 (0-9) on arrival at the accepting facility (P = 0.0001). Seventy-three percent (73/100) of patients were transported to the emergency room; 15 (15%) of 100 to the general inpatient area, and 12 (12%) of 100 to the intensive care unit. In addition, a triage TPEWS (TPEWS tri ) was calculated from information given from the referring facility in 59 of the 100 patients. A significant difference in TPEWS tri and TPEWS ref was noted (P = 0.0001). Conclusions: In this cohort of pediatric transport patients, TPEWS appears to be a helpful additional assessment tool. Transport PEWS may function as a tool for assessing severity of illness, hence optimizing transport dispatch and patient disposition.
- Subjects :
- Male
Patient Transfer
Emergency Medical Services
medicine.medical_specialty
Pediatrics
Georgia
Adolescent
Severity of Illness Index
Statistics, Nonparametric
law.invention
Risk Factors
law
Intensive care
Severity of illness
Health care
medicine
Humans
Child
Retrospective Studies
Chi-Square Distribution
business.industry
Infant, Newborn
Infant
General Medicine
Patient Acuity
Prognosis
Early warning score
Intensive care unit
Triage
Child, Preschool
Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health
Emergency medicine
Cohort
Emergency Medicine
Female
business
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 07495161
- Volume :
- 28
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Pediatric Emergency Care
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....cc40e205a7bf001ad5cc2891078c94f6