Implementing an electronic observation and early warning score chart in the emergency department: a feasibility study.

Background: Use of automated systems to aid identification of patient deterioration in routine hospital practice is limited and their impact on patient outcomes remains unclear. This study was designed to evaluate the feasibility of implementing an electronic observation chart with automated early warning score (EWS) calculation in the high-acuity area of an emergency department.

Methods: This study enrolled 3219 participants before and 3352 after implementation of an automated system, using bedside vital-sign entry on networked mobile devices.

A large-scale clinical validation of an integrated monitoring system in the emergency department.

We consider an integrated patient monitoring system, combining electronic patient records with high-rate acquisition of patient physiological data. There remain many challenges in increasing the robustness of "e-health" applications to a level at which they are clinically useful, particularly in the use of automated algorithms used to detect and cope with artifact in data contained within the electronic patient record, and in analyzing and communicating the resultant data for reporting to clinicians. There is a consequential "plague of pilots," in which engineering prototype systems do not enter into clinical use.

Analysis of a data-fusion system for continuous vital sign monitoring in an emergency department.

Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate the ability of a data-fusion patient status index (PSI) to detect patient deterioration in the emergency department (ED) in comparison with track-and-trigger (T&T).

Materials And Methods: A single-centre observational cohort study was conducted in a medium-sized teaching hospital ED. Vital sign data and any documented T&T scores (paper T&T) were collected from adults attending the resuscitation room, majors or observation ward.

Whats that noise? Bedside monitoring in the Emergency Department.

Objective: To determine the frequency, duration and type of audible monitor alarms in an ED, utilising the standard manufacturer's classification.

Methods: The audible monitor alarms and the timing of any intervention related to the patient monitoring was observed and recorded.

Results: 110 Patients admitted to the Majors area or Resuscitation Room were observed for a total of 93 hours.

Track and trigger in an emergency department: an observational evaluation study.

Objective: To evaluate the utilisation of paper-based track and trigger (T&T) charts in a UK emergency department (ED).

Methods: A single-centre prospective observational cohort study was conducted in the ED of a medium-sized teaching hospital. Charted vital-sign data were collected from adults attending the resuscitation room, majors or observation ward.

Discovery Interviews with older people: reflections from a practitioner.

This paper reports on a nurse consultant's experiences of using Discovery Interview technique with older patients and their relatives about their urgent care experiences.