National early warning score (NEWS) and the new alternative SpO2 scale during rapid response team reviews: a prospective observational study

Background The national early warning score (NEWS) enables early detection of in-hospital patient deterioration and timely activation of hospital’s rapid response team (RRT). NEWS was updated in 2017 to include a separate SpO2 scale for those patients with type II respiratory failure (T2RF). In this study we investigated whether NEWS with and without the new SpO2 scale for the T2RF patients is associated with immediate and in-hospital patient outcomes among the patients actually attended by the RRT.