Comparison of Two Pediatric Early Warning Systems: A Randomized Trial.

PURPOSE: Pediatric early warning systems (PEWS) are used to detect clinical deterioration in hospitalized children. Few PEWSs have been validated in multicenter studies and the performance in many single-center studies varies. We wanted to compare two PEWS in a multicenter study. DESIGN AND METHODS: Randomized multicenter unblinded trial conducted at all pediatric departments in the Central Denmark Region. A random sample of 16,213 pediatric patients (31,337 admissions) were enrolled from November 2014 to March 2017. Patients were randomized to The Bedside PEWS or CDR PEWS. The primary outcome was the sum of hospitalized children experiencing in-hospital clinical deterioration requiring transfer to a higher level of care. RESULTS: Of the 21,077 pediatric patients who met the inclusion criteria, 16,213 (from 31,337 admissions) were enrolled. 22 unplanned transfers to a higher level of care were identified: 14 in The Bedside PEWS group and 8 in the CDR PEWS group, a non-statistical difference (P = 0.20). No significant difference in predicting unplanned transfer to a higher level of care (P = 0.78) were detected and no significant difference was observed in the secondary outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: The CDR PEWS prevents as many critical events as The Bedside PEWS. Shorter median time to PEWS reassessment when CDR PEWS was used and fewer reassessments being done to late could reflect that the CDR PEWS was more acceptable to staff. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: The results from this study should be interpreted with caution as very few patients experiencing clinical deterioration and further studies should also focus on challenges trying to evaluate PEWS.

Compliance with hospital accreditation and patient mortality: a Danish nationwide population-based study.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between compliance with hospital accreditation and 30-day mortality. DESIGN: A nationwide population-based, follow-up study with data from national, public registries. SETTING: Public, non-psychiatric Danish hospitals. PARTICIPANTS: In-patients diagnosed with one of the 80 primary diagnoses. INTERVENTION: Accreditation by the first version of The Danish Healthcare Quality Programme for hospitals from 2010 to 2012. Compliance were assessed by surveyors on an on-site survey and awarded the hospital as a whole; fully (n = 11) or partially accredited (n = 20). A follow-up activity was requested for partially accredited hospitals; submitting additional documentation (n = 11) or by having a return-visit (n = 9). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: All-cause mortality within 30-days after admission. Multivariable logistic regression was used to compute odds ratios (ORs) for 30-day mortality adjusted for six confounding factors and for cluster effect at hospital level. RESULTS: A total of 276 980 in-patients were identified. Thirty-day mortality risk for in-patients at fully (n = 76 518) and partially accredited hospitals (n = 200 462) was 4.14% (95% confidence interval (CI):4.00-4.28) and 4.28% (95% CI: 4.20-4.37), respectively. In-patients at fully accredited hospitals had a lower risk of dying within 30-days after admission than in-patients at partially accredited hospitals (adjusted OR of 0.83; 95% CI: 0.72-0.96). A lower risk of 30-day mortality was observed among in-patients at partially accredited hospitals required to submit additional documentation compared with in-patients at partially accredited hospitals requiring a return-visit (adjusted OR 0.83; 95% CI: 0.67-1.02). CONCLUSION: Admissions at fully accredited hospitals were associated with a lower 30-day mortality risk than admissions at partially accredited hospitals.