scholarly journals IN-HOSPITAL MORTALITY AND THE PREDICTIVE ABILITY OF THE MODIFIED EARLY WARNING SCORE IN GHANA

Author(s):  
Enoch J Abbey ◽  
Jennifer S. Mammen ◽  
Samara E. Soghoian ◽  
Maureen Cadorette ◽  
Promise Ariyo

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND The modified early warning score (MEWS) is an objective measure of illness severity that promotes early recognition of clinical deterioration in critically ill patients. Its primary use is to; facilitate faster intervention or increase the level of care. Despite, its adoption in some African countries, MEWS is not standard of care in Ghana. We assessed the validity of MEWS as a predictor of mortality, among medically ill inpatients at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), Accra, Ghana. We sought to identify the predictive ability of MEWS in detecting clinical deterioration among medical in-patients and its comparability to the routinely measured vital signs. METHOD This was a retrospective study of medical inpatients, aged >=13 years and admitted at KBTH from January 2017 to March 2019. Vital signs at 48 hours after admission were coded using MEWS criteria, to obtain a limited MEWS score (LMEWS) and the level of consciousness imputed to obtain a full MEWS score (MEWS). A predictive model comparing mortality among patients with significant MEWS (L/MEWS >=4) and non-significant MEWS (L/MEWS <4) scores was designed using multiple logistic regression. Internally validated for predictive accuracy, using the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve. RESULTS 112 patients were included in the study. The adjusted odds of death comparing patients with a significant MEWS to patients with non-significant MEWS was 6.33(95% CI 1.96 to 20.48). Similarly, the adjusted odds of death comparing patients with significant versus non-significant LMEWS was 8.22(95% CI 2.45 to 27.56). The ROC curve for each analysis had a C static of 0.83 and 0.84 respectively. CONCLUSION LMEWS is a good predictor of mortality and comparable to MEWS. Adoption of LMEWS can identify medical in-patients at risk of deterioration and death.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hsiao-Ko Chang ◽  
Hui-Chih Wang ◽  
Chih-Fen Huang ◽  
Feipei Lai

BACKGROUND In most of Taiwan’s medical institutions, congestion is a serious problem for emergency departments. Due to a lack of beds, patients spend more time in emergency retention zones, which make it difficult to detect cardiac arrest (CA). OBJECTIVE We seek to develop a pharmaceutical early warning model to predict cardiac arrest in emergency departments via drug classification and medical expert suggestion. METHODS We propose a new early warning score model for detecting cardiac arrest via pharmaceutical classification and by using a sliding window; we apply learning-based algorithms to time-series data for a Pharmaceutical Early Warning Scoring Model (PEWSM). By treating pharmaceutical features as a dynamic time-series factor for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) patients, we increase sensitivity, reduce false alarm rates and mortality, and increase the model’s accuracy. To evaluate the proposed model we use the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC). RESULTS Four important findings are as follows: (1) We identify the most important drug predictors: bits, and replenishers and regulators of water and electrolytes. The best AUROC of bits is 85%; that of replenishers and regulators of water and electrolytes is 86%. These two features are the most influential of the drug features in the task. (2) We verify feature selection, in which accounting for drugs improve the accuracy: In Task 1, the best AUROC of vital signs is 77%, and that of all features is 86%. In Task 2, the best AUROC of all features is 85%, which demonstrates that thus accounting for the drugs significantly affects prediction. (3) We use a better model: For traditional machine learning, this study adds a new AI technology: the long short-term memory (LSTM) model with the best time-series accuracy, comparable to the traditional random forest (RF) model; the two AUROC measures are 85%. (4) We determine whether the event can be predicted beforehand: The best classifier is still an RF model, in which the observational starting time is 4 hours before the CPR event. Although the accuracy is impaired, the predictive accuracy still reaches 70%. Therefore, we believe that CPR events can be predicted four hours before the event. CONCLUSIONS This paper uses a sliding window to account for dynamic time-series data consisting of the patient’s vital signs and drug injections. In a comparison with NEWS, we improve predictive accuracy via feature selection, which includes drugs as features. In addition, LSTM yields better performance with time-series data. The proposed PEWSM, which offers 4-hour predictions, is better than the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) in the literature. This also confirms that the doctor’s heuristic rules are consistent with the results found by machine learning algorithms.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enoch Joseph Abbey ◽  
Jennifer S R Mammen ◽  
Samara E Soghoian ◽  
Maureen A F Cadorette ◽  
Promise Ariyo

BACKGROUND The modified early warning score (MEWS) is an objective measure of illness severity that promotes early recognition of clinical deterioration in critically ill patients. Its primary use is to facilitate faster intervention or increase the level of care. Despite its adoption in some African countries, MEWS is not standard of care in Ghana. In order to facilitate the use of such a tool, we assessed whether MEWS, or a combination of the more limited data that are routinely collected in current clinical practice, can be used predict to mortality among critically ill inpatients at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Ghana. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to identify the predictive ability of MEWS for medical inpatients at risk of mortality and its comparability to a measure combining routinely measured physiologic parameters (limited MEWS [LMEWS]). METHODS We conducted a retrospective study of medical inpatients, aged ≥13 years and admitted to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital from January 2017 to March 2019. Routine vital signs at 48 hours post admission were coded to obtain LMEWS values. The level of consciousness was imputed from medical records and combined with LMEWS to obtain the full MEWS value. A predictive model comparing mortality among patients with a significant MEWS value or LMEWS ≥4 versus a nonsignificant MEWS value or LMEWS &lt;4 was designed using multiple logistic regression and internally validated for predictive accuracy, using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. RESULTS A total of 112 patients were included in the study. The adjusted odds of death comparing patients with a significant MEWS to patients with a nonsignificant MEWS was 6.33 (95% CI 1.96-20.48). Similarly, the adjusted odds of death comparing patients with a significant versus nonsignificant LMEWS value was 8.22 (95% CI 2.45-27.56). The ROC curve for each analysis had a C-statistic of 0.83 and 0.84, respectively. CONCLUSIONS LMEWS is a good predictor of mortality and comparable to MEWS. Adoption of LMEWS can be implemented now using currently available data to identify medical inpatients at risk of death in order to improve care.


JMIRx Med ◽  
10.2196/24645 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. e24645
Author(s):  
Enoch Joseph Abbey ◽  
Jennifer S R Mammen ◽  
Samara E Soghoian ◽  
Maureen A F Cadorette ◽  
Promise Ariyo

Background The modified early warning score (MEWS) is an objective measure of illness severity that promotes early recognition of clinical deterioration in critically ill patients. Its primary use is to facilitate faster intervention or increase the level of care. Despite its adoption in some African countries, MEWS is not standard of care in Ghana. In order to facilitate the use of such a tool, we assessed whether MEWS, or a combination of the more limited data that are routinely collected in current clinical practice, can be used predict to mortality among critically ill inpatients at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Ghana. Objective The aim of this study was to identify the predictive ability of MEWS for medical inpatients at risk of mortality and its comparability to a measure combining routinely measured physiologic parameters (limited MEWS [LMEWS]). Methods We conducted a retrospective study of medical inpatients, aged ≥13 years and admitted to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital from January 2017 to March 2019. Routine vital signs at 48 hours post admission were coded to obtain LMEWS values. The level of consciousness was imputed from medical records and combined with LMEWS to obtain the full MEWS value. A predictive model comparing mortality among patients with a significant MEWS value or LMEWS ≥4 versus a nonsignificant MEWS value or LMEWS <4 was designed using multiple logistic regression and internally validated for predictive accuracy, using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Results A total of 112 patients were included in the study. The adjusted odds of death comparing patients with a significant MEWS to patients with a nonsignificant MEWS was 6.33 (95% CI 1.96-20.48). Similarly, the adjusted odds of death comparing patients with a significant versus nonsignificant LMEWS value was 8.22 (95% CI 2.45-27.56). The ROC curve for each analysis had a C-statistic of 0.83 and 0.84, respectively. Conclusions LMEWS is a good predictor of mortality and comparable to MEWS. Adoption of LMEWS can be implemented now using currently available data to identify medical inpatients at risk of death in order to improve care.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hsiao-Ko Chang ◽  
Hui-Chih Wang ◽  
Chih-Fen Huang ◽  
Feipei Lai

BACKGROUND In most of Taiwan’s medical institutions, congestion is a serious problem for emergency departments. Due to a lack of beds, patients spend more time in emergency retention zones, which make it difficult to detect cardiac arrest (CA). OBJECTIVE We seek to develop a Drug Early Warning System Model (DEWSM), it included drug injections and vital signs as this research important features. We use it to predict cardiac arrest in emergency departments via drug classification and medical expert suggestion. METHODS We propose this new model for detecting cardiac arrest via drug classification and by using a sliding window; we apply learning-based algorithms to time-series data for a DEWSM. By treating drug features as a dynamic time-series factor for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) patients, we increase sensitivity, reduce false alarm rates and mortality, and increase the model’s accuracy. To evaluate the proposed model, we use the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC). RESULTS Four important findings are as follows: (1) We identify the most important drug predictors: bits (intravenous therapy), and replenishers and regulators of water and electrolytes (fluid and electrolyte supplement). The best AUROC of bits is 85%, it means the medical expert suggest the drug features: bits, it will affect the vital signs, and then the evaluate this model correctly classified patients with CPR reach 85%; that of replenishers and regulators of water and electrolytes is 86%. These two features are the most influential of the drug features in the task. (2) We verify feature selection, in which accounting for drugs improve the accuracy: In Task 1, the best AUROC of vital signs is 77%, and that of all features is 86%. In Task 2, the best AUROC of all features is 85%, which demonstrates that thus accounting for the drugs significantly affects prediction. (3) We use a better model: For traditional machine learning, this study adds a new AI technology: the long short-term memory (LSTM) model with the best time-series accuracy, comparable to the traditional random forest (RF) model; the two AUROC measures are 85%. It can be seen that the use of new AI technology will achieve better results, currently comparable to the accuracy of traditional common RF, and the LSTM model can be adjusted in the future to obtain better results. (4) We determine whether the event can be predicted beforehand: The best classifier is still an RF model, in which the observational starting time is 4 hours before the CPR event. Although the accuracy is impaired, the predictive accuracy still reaches 70%. Therefore, we believe that CPR events can be predicted four hours before the event. CONCLUSIONS This paper uses a sliding window to account for dynamic time-series data consisting of the patient’s vital signs and drug injections. The National Early Warning Score (NEWS) only focuses on the score of vital signs, and does not include factors related to drug injections. In this study, the experimental results of adding the drug injections are better than only vital signs. In a comparison with NEWS, we improve predictive accuracy via feature selection, which includes drugs as features. In addition, we use traditional machine learning methods and deep learning (using LSTM method as the main processing time series data) as the basis for comparison of this research. The proposed DEWSM, which offers 4-hour predictions, is better than the NEWS in the literature. This also confirms that the doctor’s heuristic rules are consistent with the results found by machine learning algorithms.


2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 236-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Mohammed ◽  
Muhammad Faisal ◽  
Donald Richardson ◽  
Robin Howes ◽  
Kevin Beatson ◽  
...  

Objective Routine administrative data have been used to show that patients admitted to hospitals over the weekend appear to have a higher mortality compared to weekday admissions. Such data do not take the severity of sickness of a patient on admission into account. Our aim was to incorporate a standardized vital signs physiological-based measure of sickness known as the National Early Warning Score to investigate if weekend admissions are: sicker as measured by their index National Early Warning Score; have an increased mortality; and experience longer delays in the recording of their index National Early Warning Score. Methods We extracted details of all adult emergency medical admissions during 2014 from hospital databases and linked these with electronic National Early Warning Score data in four acute hospitals. We analysed 47,117 emergency admissions after excluding 1657 records, where National Early Warning Score was missing or the first (index) National Early Warning Score was recorded outside ±24 h of the admission time. Results Emergency medical admissions at the weekend had higher index National Early Warning Score (weekend: 2.53 vs. weekday: 2.30, p < 0.001) with a higher mortality (weekend: 706/11,332 6.23% vs. weekday: 2039/35,785 5.70%; odds ratio = 1.10, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.20, p = 0.04) which was no longer seen after adjusting for the index National Early Warning Score (odds ratio = 0.99, 95% CI 0.90 to 1.09, p = 0.87). Index National Early Warning Score was recorded sooner (−0.45 h, 95% CI −0.52 to −0.38, p < 0.001) for weekend admissions. Conclusions Emergency medical admissions at the weekend with electronic National Early Warning Score recorded within 24 h are sicker, have earlier clinical assessments, and after adjusting for the severity of their sickness, do not appear to have a higher mortality compared to weekday admissions. A larger definitive study to confirm these findings is needed.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Pauline M. Remalante-Rayco ◽  
Evelyn Osio-Salido

Objective. To assess the performance of prognostic models in predicting mortality or clinical deterioration among patients with COVID-19, both hospitalized and non-hospitalized Methods. We conducted a systematic review of the literature until March 8, 2021. We included models for the prediction of mortality or clinical deterioration in COVID-19 with external validation. We used the Prediction model Risk Of Bias ASsessment Tool (PROBAST) and the GRADEpro Guideline Development Tool (GDT) to assess the evidence obtained. Results. We reviewed 33 cohort studies. Two studies had a low risk of bias, four unclear risks, and 27 with a high risk of bias due to participant selection and analysis. For the outcome of mortality, the QCOVID model had excellent prediction with high certainty of evidence but was specific for use in England. The COVID Outcome Prediction in the Emergency Department (COPE) model, the 4C Mortality Score, the Age, BUN, number of comorbidities, CRP, SpO2/FiO2 ratio, platelet count, heart rate (ABC2-SPH) risk score, the Confusion Urea Respiration Blood Pressure (CURB-65) severity score, the Rapid Emergency Medicine Score (REMS), and the Risk Stratification in the Emergency Department in Acutely Ill Older Patients (RISE UP) score had fair to good prediction of death among inpatients, while the quick Sepsis-related Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA) score had poor to fair prediction. The certainty of evidence for these models was very low to low. For the outcome of clinical deterioration, the 4C Deterioration Score had fair prediction, the National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS2) score poor to good, and the Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS) had poor prediction. The certainty of evidence for these three models was also very low to low. None of these models had been validated in the Philippine setting. Conclusion. The QCOVID, COPE, ABC2-SPH, 4C, CURB-65, REMS, RISE-UP models for prediction of mortality and the 4C Deterioration and NEWS2 models for prediction of clinical deterioration are potentially useful but need to be validated among patients with COVID-19 of varying severity in the Philippine setting.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enoch Joseph Abbey ◽  
Jennifer S R Mammen ◽  
Samara E Soghoian ◽  
Maureen A F Cadorette ◽  
Promise Ariyo

UNSTRUCTURED These are authors responses to peer review.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. e000088 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muge Capan ◽  
Stephen Hoover ◽  
Kristen E Miller ◽  
Carmen Pal ◽  
Justin M Glasgow ◽  
...  

BackgroundIncreasing adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) with integrated alerting systems is a key initiative for improving patient safety. Considering the variety of dynamically changing clinical information, it remains a challenge to design EHR-driven alerting systems that notify the right providers for the right patient at the right time while managing alert burden. The objective of this study is to proactively develop and evaluate a systematic alert-generating approach as part of the implementation of an Early Warning Score (EWS) at the study hospitals.MethodsWe quantified the impact of an EWS-based clinical alert system on quantity and frequency of alerts using three different alert algorithms consisting of a set of criteria for triggering and muting alerts when certain criteria are satisfied. We used retrospectively collected EHRs data from December 2015 to July 2016 in three units at the study hospitals including general medical, acute care for the elderly and patients with heart failure.ResultsWe compared the alert-generating algorithms by opportunity of early recognition of clinical deterioration while proactively estimating alert burden at a unit and patient level. Results highlighted the dependency of the number and frequency of alerts generated on the care location severity and patient characteristics.ConclusionEWS-based alert algorithms have the potential to facilitate appropriate alert management prior to integration into clinical practice. By comparing different algorithms with regard to the alert frequency and potential early detection of physiological deterioration as key patient safety opportunities, findings from this study highlight the need for alert systems tailored to patient and care location needs, and inform alternative EWS-based alert deployment strategies to enhance patient safety.


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