Physiological-Social Scores in Predicting Outcomes of Prehospital Internal Patients

Abstract

The physiological-social modified early warning score system is a newly developed instrument for the identification of patients at risk. The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of using the physiological-social modified early warning score system for the identification of patients that needed prehospital emergency care. This prospective cohort study was conducted with 2157 patients. This instrument was used as a measure to detect critical illness in patients hospitalised in internal wards. Judgment by an emergency medicine specialist was used as a measure of standard. Data were analyzed by using receiver operating characteristics curves and the area under the curve with 95% confidence interval. The mean score of the physiological-social modified early warning score system was 2.71 ± 3.55. Moreover, 97.6% patients with the score ≥ 4 needed prehospital emergency services. The area under receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.738 (95% CI = 0.708–0.767). Emergency medical staffs can use PMEWS ≥ 4 to identify those patients hospitalised in the internal ward as at risk patients. The physiological-social modified early warning score system is suggested to be used for decision-making of emergency staff about internal patients’ wards in EMS situations.