Early warning system (medical)
Design and impact

Early warning systems are typically designed based on statistical analysis of the degree of variation in any given observation (such as vital signs, consciousness or demographics), and corresponding associations with adverse events (such as ICU admission, cardiac arrest, or death). The most common observations utilised in EWSs to predict deterioration is respiratory rate, followed by heart rate, oxygen saturation, temperature, systolic blood pressure, then level of consciousness (either AVPU or GCS). A small number of EWSs include age and sex as predictors of deterioration, as both have associations with in-hospital mortality, however the benefit of including age is negligible and raises significant ethical concerns. Most EWSs are designed to generate a score of up to three for any one given measure. Further delimitation of variation beyond 3 in either direction is believed to not add any additional benefit with the increased complexity.
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