National early warning score (NEWS) in a Finnish multidisciplinary emergency department and direct vs. late admission to intensive care

Objectives: We investigated the national early warning scores (NEWSs) and related outcomes of patients in a tertiary referral center's multidisciplinary emergency department (ED). Patients were further categorized into three groups: triaged directly to intensive care unit (EDICU), triaged to general ward with later ICU admission (EDwardICU) and triaged to general ward (EDward). NEWSs and subsequent outcomes among these sub groups were compared. Methods: We conducted a prospective one-month cohort study in Tampere University Hospital's ED, Finland. EDNEWSs were obtained for all adult patients without treatment limitations, and control (ward) NEWSs were further obtained for the EDwardICU and EDward patients. Results: Cohort consisted of 1,354 patients with a median ED-NEWS of 2, and higher ED-NEWS was associated with in-hospital mortality (OR 1.26, 95% CI 1.11-1.42; AUROC 0.75, 0.64. 0.86, p < 0.001) and 30-day mortality (OR 1.27, 1.17-1.39; AUROC 0.78, 0.71. 0.84, p < 0.001) irrespective of age and comorbidity. There were 64 patients in EDICU group, 12 patients in EDwardICU group and 1,278 patients in EDward group with median ED-NEWSs of 7, 3 and 2 (p < 0.001), respectively. After the first 24 h in wards, median NEWSs of the EDwardICU patients had substantially increased as compared with EDward patients (6 vs. 2, p < 0.001). There were no statistical differences in last NEWS before ICU admission between the EDICU and EDwardICU patients (7 vs. 8, p = 0.534), or in ICU severity-of-illness scores or patient outcomes. Conclusions: ED-NEWS is independently associated with in-hospital and 30-day mortality with acceptable discrimination capability. Direct and late ICU admissions occurred with comparable NEWSs at admission.