A trial of a real-time alert for clinical deterioration in patients hospitalized on general medical wards.

Background: With limited numbers of intensive care unit (ICU) beds available, increasing patient acuity is expected to contribute to episodes of inpatient deterioration on general wards.

Objective: To prospectively validate a predictive algorithm for clinical deterioration in general-medical ward patients, and to conduct a trial of real-time alerts based on this algorithm.

Design: Randomized, controlled crossover study.

Toward a two-tier clinical warning system for hospitalized patients.

Clinical study has found early detection and intervention to be essential for preventing clinical deterioration in patients at general hospital units. In this paper, we envision a two-tiered early warning system designed to identify the signs of clinical deterioration and provide early warning of serious clinical events. The first tier of the system automatically identifies patients at risk of clinical deterioration from existing electronic medical record databases.