Comparison of Emergency Severity Index Version 4 and Modified Pediatric Early Warning Score as Triage Models in the Pediatric Emergency of a Tertiary Care Public Sector Hospital.

Objective: To identify the sensitivity of emergency severity index (ESI) version 4 and modified pediatric early warning score (PEWS) in identifying high urgency patients.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted between November, 2019 and October, 2021 in the pediatric emergency department of tertiary hospital in Delhi. 250 patients aged 0-12 years coming to pediatric emergency on pre-decided days for health-related complaints were enrolled. These were assessed with both triage systems within 30 minutes of their arrival by a single researcher. 'High urgency' patients were defined as the ones who either required admission in pediatric ICU or died or had critical value of vital parameters as per institution protocol.

Results: ESI version 4 had a sensitivity of 95.5%, specificity of 80.3%, with AUC of 0.879 (95%CI 0.834-0.925) in identifying high urgency patients at levels 1 and 2. Modified PEWS had comparatively lower sensitivity of 79.1%, specificity of 97.8%, with AUC of 0.885 (95%CI 0.825-0.994) in identifying high urgency patients at score of ≥3. The ESI version 4 was found to be a better predictor of admission than the modified PEWS, with a sensitivity of 98.2%. Both the scores were able to identify patients at risk of mortality with a sensitivity of 100%.

Conclusion: ESI version 4 is a better triage tool than modified PEWS in pediatric population in a tertiary care public hospital setting in this region.