Recognising and responding to critically unwell patients

From the investigation: Recognising and responding to critically unwell patients

Recommendation date:

Safety recommendation

It is recommended that the Royal College of Physicians NEWS advisory group continues to evaluate the implementation and use of NEWS2, including but not limited to:

  • The use of NEWS2 in practice, in particular the consistency of recording, the consistency of response, and the communication of patient measurements between healthcare professionals.
  • The effectiveness of NEWS2 in identifying a patient’s level of acute illness in different care settings and patient groups.
  • The presentation of NEWS2 information and how this supports clinicians to identify trends, particularly in electronic records.
  • The guidance and training on the use of NEWS2 as part of clinical assessment and patient monitoring.

Response:

The Royal College of Physicians has formed the NEWS2 advisory group to evaluate the implementation and use of NEWS2 collaborating with system experts and leaders from NHS Improvement, NHS England, AHSNs [Academic Health Science Networks], the RCGP [Royal College of General Practitioners] and prominent healthcare professionals from the field of deterioration and sepsis.

Through this group, and in part informed by this report, we recognise that there are key areas of focus including assessing the use of NEWS2 in practice and its effectiveness in identifying the level of acute illness in different patient groups and settings, how the presentation of NEWS2 supports clinicians to identify trends, and training on the use of NEWS2.

Over the next 12 months we aim to:

  • Provide, as appropriate, support to clinicians using NEWS2, for example, guidance around the new confusion score to be published within the RCP NEWS2 FAQs.
  • Support the development of additional e-learning modules covering the common challenges faced by clinicians using NEWS2.
  • Seek to work with companies that provide electronic recording platforms to move towards consistency of products for recording NEWS2.
  • Ensure that the RCP NEWS2 website is an effective mechanism for sharing case studies of good practice and lessons learned from the implementation and use of NEWS2.
  • Support the continuation of embedding NEWS2, and the learning from its use and implementation throughout the NHS.

Response received on 7 August 2019.

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