Refining and testing the diagnostic accuracy of PAT-POPS
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Refining and testing the diagnostic accuracy of an assessment tool (PAT-POPS) to predict admission and discharge of children and young people who attend an emergency department
IRAS ID
213469
Contact name
Steve Woby
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust & Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Increasing demand on urgent and emergency care services for children
and young people means that children with serious illness are at risk of
being missed, while there may be a tendency to admit children and young
people who do not need hospital care. Neither of these scenarios is
beneficial or acceptable to families, carers or children and young people,
and may result in avoidable harm to patients.
Scoring systems which use observations such as a child's heart rate or
breathing rate have been used on hospital wards to aid detection of
children who require enhanced care. However, these systems as yet have
not been deployed successfully in emergency departments. One system
specifically designed for emergency and urgent care use (PAT-POPS: the
Pennine Acute (Hospitals NHS) Trust Paediatric Observation Priority Score) has shown early signs of being successful at recognising both the most unwell children but also those who may be safe and suitable for discharge. This study will examine the impact of PAT-POPS and determine whether it would be a useful tool to roll out across the NHS.REC name
West Midlands - Black Country Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/WM/0436
Date of REC Opinion
20 Dec 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion