A model that included routinely collected patient information accurately predicted sepsis among hospitalized patients aged 16 years and older in England, according to research published in CMAJ.

Mohammed A. Mohammed, PhD, professor of health care quality and effectiveness and deputy director of the Bradford Institute of Health Research at the University of Bradford, and colleagues wrote that in England, a standard assessment called the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) measures patients’ respiration rate, oxygen saturations, any supplemental oxygen, temperature, systolic blood pressure, heart rate and level of consciousness. A score is assigned to patients based on clinical observations, with higher scores indicating more critical illnesses. These assessments are usually collected within 30 minutes for most patients.