How this fits in

It has been recommended that the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) should be used in pre-hospital care but there is no published evidence that this improves outcomes. This was a quality improvement project undertaken across the West of England from March 2015 to March 2019 to evaluate whether implementation of NEWS across a healthcare system affects outcomes, specifically addressing the effect on mortality in patients with suspicion of sepsis (SOS). Implementation of NEWS at point of referral from community into acute care reduced mortality in patients with SOS. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate that using the same early warning score across a healthcare system can improve outcomes.