An electronic early warning scorecard, which can help hospital staff identify patients who are deteriorating, has been developed by researchers in Cork.

The National Early Warning Scorecard (e-NEWS) is currently being rolled out by the HSE in acute hospital settings. It is hoped that by detecting deteriorating patients earlier, their outcomes may be improved.

A paper-based version of the scorecard was introduced across all acute hospitals in 2011 and 2012 by the HSE. This was done in an attempt to avoid the late detection of deterioration in patients.

If a patient's deterioration is missed or delayed, this can lead to potentially dangerous consequences for them. However, it also leads to more work for staff, an increase in medical costs and a bigger strain on hospital resources.

According to the researchers at University College Cork (UCC), who developed e-NEWS, it can ‘integrate signals from remote medical devices such as wireless body area networks and patient sensors developed'. This means, for example, that a patient's pulse can be taken automatically and the information relayed to the e-NEWS.

This gives the appropriate medical staff the information they need when they need it, while also freeing up medical staff who would normally have to check these things.

"This will provide healthcare professionals with a more accurate and timely picture of the status of their patient, enabling them to implement clinical care earlier which will improve patient outcomes and recovery time. It will also ease the workload of nursing and medical staff by automating patient monitoring and reporting in acute settings," the researchers noted.

The software, which has been in development for the last 18 months, is now being tested at St Luke's General Hospital in Kilkenny and Nenagh General Hospital in Tipperary.

"The future now is not in responding to cardiac arrest or crash calls - it is in preventing them. We have introduced the e-NEWS into our acute medical assessment unit in St. Luke's, which is always very busy," explained Prof Garry Courtney, clinical director of St Luke's.

He said that the aim of the e-NEWS is ‘to free up nurses from doing manual measurements of blood pressure, pulse and temperature which will now be done electronically'.

"The electronic triggers will alert nursing staff to the patients who need further assessment. This will allow nurses to devote more of their time to extremely ill patients'.