Table 4.
Inpatients with urgent consultation to the critical care response team
| All visits | Visits with ≥ 5 Bedside PEWS items | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New consults | N (%) | Mean (SD) First visit score |
N (%) | Mean (SD) First visit score |
| Admitted | ||||
| On first visit | 75 (17%) | 7.7 (5.0) | 63 (16%) | 8.7 (4.7) |
| Within 24 hours after first visit | 51 (12%) | 5.9 (3.2) | 47 (12%) | 6.1 (3.2) |
| Not admitted | 310 (70%) | 4.9 (3.4) | 272 (71%) | 5.2 (3.3) |
Data are from 436 urgent consultation episodes to the critical care response team, made for 309 inpatients. Each consultation episode was defined as the 24-hour period beginning at the time of consultation. The outcome of each consultation episode was either remaining on the ward or being admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). Bedside Paediatric Early Warning System (PEWS)scores were calculated from data collected by the critical care response team (on their arrival or during their consultation). The Bedside PEWS scores of patients who were admitted on the first consultation visit were higher than the scores than patients who were admitted later within the 24 hours of consultation (P = 0.048), and than the scores of patients who were not admitted to ICU (P < 0.0001). SD = standard deviation.