NEWS-2 score assessment of inpatient referral during the COVID 19 epidemic

AimTo manage patients with suspected coronavirus disease (COVID-19) when they arrive at the hospital emergency department (ED), a clinical severity score is required to quickly identify patients requiring immediate hospital admission and close monitoring. The aim of this study was to evaluate, within the context of the pandemic, the performance of National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS-2) to anticipate the admission of patients with suspected COVID-19 to a specialised emergency care unit. MethodsThis retrospective study was conducted on patients presenting at the COVID-19 entrance of the ED of the Vert-Galant private hospital (Paris, France) during the first national pandemic peak from March 20 to April 20, 2020. All patients completed a questionnaire and clinical data and vital signs were recorded. Statistical analysis and modelling were used to estimate the ability of different scores (NEWS-2, qSOFA, CRB-65) to predict hospital emergency admission and/or early COVID-19 diagnosis. ResultsNEWS-2, with a cut off value of 5, predicted hospital admission with 82% sensitivity, 98% specificity and an area under the curve (AUC) of 96%. NEWS-2 was superior to qSOFA and CRB-65 scores for predicting hospital admission of COVID-19 patients. Multilinear or logistic regression analysis of clinical data did not improve this result. ConclusionNEWS-2 is an excellent score to predict hospital admission of COVID-19 patients.