Prospective evaluation of a pediatric inpatient early warning scoring system.

Purpose: The present study evaluated the use of the Pediatric Early Warning Score (PEWS) for detecting clinical deterioration among hospitalized children.

Design/methods: A prospective, descriptive study design was used. The tool was used to score 2,979 patients admitted to a single medical unit of a pediatric hospital over a 12-month period.

Results: PEWS discriminated between children who required transfer to the pediatric intensive care unit and those who did not require transfer (area under the curve = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.84-0.94, p < .001).

Implications: The PEWS tool was found to be a reliable and valid scoring system to identify children at risk for clinical deterioration.