Bedside electronic capture of clinical observations and automated clinical alerts to improve compliance with an Early Warning Score protocol.

Background: Failure to comply with clinical protocols and failure of communication to ensure delivery of the most appropriate timely clinical responses to patients whose conditions are acutely deteriorating have been shown to be significant causative factors associated with inhospital adverse events.

Objective: To determine whether automated clinical alerts increase compliance with an Early Warning Score (EWS) protocol and improve patient outcomes.

Methods: We performed a historically controlled study of bedside electronic capture of observations and automated clinical alerts.