Ms K complained that her mother’s, Ms P, NEWS (National Early Warning Score – a standardised scoring system used by healthcare professionals to assess the severity of acute illness and quickly identify the risk of clinical deterioration in adult patients) was recorded incorrectly during her hospital triage assessment on 22 April 2023 and questioned whether this impacted Ms P’s subsequent care.
Ms K said that her mother’s NEWS should have been higher and this should have triggered the sepsis pathway (a time critical clinical guideline designed to rapidly identify and treat sepsis). Ms K said her mother had sepsis and there was a delay in providing treatment for this.
The Ombudsman’s investigation found that Ms P’s NEWS at triage was recorded correctly. Therefore, this did not impact the care she received following triage. The investigation also found that Ms P did not have sepsis at triage and therefore there was no indication to trigger the sepsis pathway.
The complaint was not upheld.