Paediatric early warning system utilisation and mortality avoidance

A prospective, mixed methods, before and after study identifying the evidence based for the core components of an effective paediatric early warning system (PEWS) and the development of an implementation package for use in the UK.

In hospital, staff try to quickly identify the children who are seriously ill or getting sicker, so that they receive rapid treatment to improve their condition.

Despite training, sometimes children become sicker in hospital without staff noticing or they underestimate the severity of illness, do not treat deterioration quickly enough, or get extra help. In these cases, the very sick child might require emergency transfer to intensive care, stop breathing, or die unexpectedly.

This study aims to develop an understanding of core components and mechanisms necessary in monitoring children in hospital, in order to identify deterioration quickly so there is an urgent response to save the patient from harm and reduce premature death in hospitalised children across the United Kingdom.

This research study will be conducted in four hospitals and aims to examine what key components should be included in a paediatric early warning system, to help identify the children who are sicker and prevent them becoming more unwell, having a serious complication or dying.