MSc RESE 1128 NEWS vs PARS
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Evaluation of the Impact of the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) implemented by the Trust compared with the Patient at Risk Score (PARS) system it replaced
IRAS ID
219327
Contact name
Harry Chummun
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Darent Valley Hospital (Senior Governance Manager)
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
This research will be conducted as part of the MSc Advanced Practice programme at the University of Greenwich which I am currently undertaking.
Early warning systems (EWS) facilitate the early recognition and prevention of critical illnesses of adult patients. They enable early referral, assessment and intervention, thereby preventing acute deterioration. Patient deterioration is often preceded by changes in vital physiological parameters (eg. pulse rate, blood pressure, temperature, respiratory rate, consciousness level, etc) hours before the onset of critical illness. When deterioration is recognised early, excess mortality and serious adverse events (SAEs) such as cardiac arrests (CA), unanticipated intensive care admissions (UICUA) and unanticipated death (UD) can be prevented.
The National Early Warning Score (NEWS) published by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) in 2012 aims to provide a standardised assessment and response to critical illness and thereby reduce variations in the quality of care within and across NHS hospitals.
In our trust, NEWS has been implemented from February 2016. The purpose of my proposed research is therefore to statistically analyse and study the impact of NEWS on the number of calls for the Medical Emergency Team (MET calls), CAs and UICUAs, compared with that under the Patient At Risk Score (PARS) it replaced. I hope that the research evidence obtained will help inform the Trust about the efficacy, consequences, and resource implications of implementing NEWS.
For this research, existing data on MET calls, ICU admissions and cardiac arrests will be retrospectively collected from the ICU audit office and the RESUS officer of the Trust who routinely collects them for monitoring and reporting purposes. The period of interest will be for the 8-month period from 26 Feb to 31st Oct. 2016 under NEWS and the corresponding period of 26 Feb to 31st Oct 2015 under PARS to optimise comparability.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 5
REC reference
17/WS/0035
Date of REC Opinion
6 Feb 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion