The National Early Warning Score (NEWS) determines the degree of illness of a patient using six physiological findings and one observation.

EWSs generate an overall score intended to indicate the risk of a patient experiencing an adverse outcome, such as requiring ICU admission, cardiac arrest, or in-hospital death. As physiological observations go outside normal parameters, numeric scores are …

This briefing focuses on 5 early warning score (EWS) 'track and trigger' systems that can be configured to the NEWS2 specifications. They integrate with electronic health record (EHR) systems to remotely monitor manually entered or automatically captured physiological parameter data directly from bedside patient monitors. They are designed to

An Early Warning Score must be used for all patients within a hospital setting when recording vital signs for: • Early detection of detrimental changes. • Safe, timely, effective management of care in response to a patient’s deteriorating condition.

This tool should be used in conjunction with the NICE Traffic Light System for identifying Risk of Serious Illness and the NICE Summary of symptoms and signs suggestive of specific diseases. Scoring will be calculated as follows red will score 3, grey will score 2, amber will score 1 and green will score 0.

EWS systems assess the magnitude of physiological disturbance from the norm in response to acute illness and are generally based on allocating scores to routinely measured physiological parameters in a clinical setting. A score of zero representing no physiological disturbance and higher scores reflecting greater disturbance.

The Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS) etermines the degree of illness of a patient using 4 physiological findings and one observation.