Timely Identification of evolving critical illness is the essential precursor of effective escalation of care. Late ICU admission is associated with increased mortality, acquired morbidity and increased resource utilization. Preventing late ICU admission is the rationale of rapid response systems and “Right Care. Right Now” is the slogan of the Society of Critical Care Medicine.
Developing and validating tools to objectively quantify severity of illness.
Implementing systems of care to enable timely escalation of care to improve outcomes.
The projects of the BedsidePEWS program include the initial development and validation of the BedsidePEWS, the initial implementation, development of outcome measures used in the multi-center evaluation, and the design and conduct of the international cluster randomized trial. Current work includes the exploration of BedsidePEWS as a measure of severity of illness in Severe Acute Malnutrition.
Projects have been funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Heart and Foundation of Canada, and the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health.