In January of 2019, two percent of patients at Baylor College of Medicine TKTKT triggered the hospital’s Maternal Early Warning System (MEWS). Based on health records and outcomes, however, that number should have been closer to 60 percent.
MEWS is a system of escalation practices based on maternal vital signs. It is crucial for getting mothers the care they need in the face of illness during pregnancy, and is designed to facilitate timely recognition, diagnosis, and treatment by creating a response protocol. The goal is getting a provider at the patient’s bedside as soon as possible after warning signs are noted, in order to begin intervention.
TCHMB’s July webinar, hosted by Dr. Christina Davidson, M.D., and Dr. Catherine Eppes, M.D., M.P.H., both of Baylor, describes the steps practitioners can take to improve MEWS implementation through concurrent use of electronic health records.
Since January, the gap between patients who did trigger MEWS compared to those who should have triggered the system fell from 58 percent to 0 percent—a stark contrast that highlights the success of the new procedures.