NHS England is rolling out a national standardised approach of tracking the deterioration of children in hospital.
Currently, many hospitals track deterioration differently and this can present challenges for staff working across different hospital sites.
The project started in 2018 and is a collaboration between NHS England and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).
PEWS charts have been collaboratively developed by clinical teams across England and will be used on general children’s wards.
Building on a programme of research and clinical piloting, the digital PEWS system has been rolled out in paediatric areas across South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and early user feedback is very positive.
In addition to implementing the national PEWS system, the team at South Tees has worked hard to embed an automated sepsis tool within it which will aid in the early identification and treatment of children with severe infections and sepsis.
Dr Jonathan Grimbley, consultant paediatrician and South Tees lead for national PEWS, said: “The implementation of our new digital PEWS and sepsis systems will bring significant benefits to patient safety across the trust.
“This is the result of a lot of hard work from a range of staff across the trust working collaboratively with the national team and it’s great to finally see it working well.”
Nicola Howe, trust’s clinical matron for children and young people:
We value the importance of early recognition of clinical deterioration when caring for children and young People. The NPEWS is a great standardised approach to aid this early recognition of deterioration and tracking of clinical observations over time.
“Using NPEWS in a digital format provides added benefits including accessibility to review observations form different locations, embedded escalation prompts and audit opportunities.
“This has very much been a joint effort between the paediatric clinical teams, digital educators and Alcidion. I am extremely proud of the work everyone has contributed to ensure the successful implementation of digital NPEWS at South Tees.”