Collaborative working to promote the use of an early warning scoring system in the recognition and escalation of acutely ill patients in community healthcare
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

Collaborative working to promote the use of an early warning scoring system in the recognition and escalation of acutely ill patients in community healthcare

Karen Field Clinical lead nurse, Bristol Royal Infirmary, Bristol, England
Pauline Angell Community matron for urgent care, North Somerset Community Partnership, Clevedon, England

The National Patient Safety Agency’s (NPSA) National Reporting and Learning System (2007) identified that 11% of deaths in 2005 were the result of deterioration that was not recognised or acted on. In response to this, the Royal College of Physicians (2012) and NPSA (2007) recommended the use in clinical areas of an early warning score (EWS) to identify early signs of deterioration in patients. Traditionally, the EWS has been used in hospitals, but the national early warning score (NEWS) has recently been recommended for use before admission to hospital.

Two community health providers undertook a collaborative project in association with the West of England Academic Health Science Network to promote the use of NEWS in community health services across west England. This resulted in suitable community tools and stronger links across the region that help to recognise deteriorating patients sooner.

Primary Health Care. doi: 10.7748/phc.2018.e1408

Citation

Field K, Angell P (2018) Collaborative working to promote the use of an early warning scoring system in the recognition and escalation of acutely ill patients in community healthcare. Primary Health Care. doi: 10.7748/phc.2018.e1408

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and has been checked for plagiarism using automated software

Correspondence

karen.field2@nhs.net

Conflict of interest

None declared

Published online: 07 November 2018

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