Variation in health care providers’ perceptions: decision making based on patient vital signs

Zarabzadeh, Atieh; O�Donoghue, John; O�Connor, Yvonne; O�Kane, Tom; Woodworth, Simon; Gallagher, Joe; O�Connor, Siobh�n

Abstract

Clinical decision making plays an imperative role when delivering healthcare services. To assist healthcare practitioners in decision making activities, Early Warning Scorecards (EWS) have been developed to classify patients based on their vital sign readings. This paper aims to evaluate the variation among healthcare practitioners’ perceptions of vital signs critical ranges and priorities, and if there is a variation between decisions made based on paper-based Modified EWS (MEWS) and electronic MEWS. A survey is conducted to analyse these variations for six vital sign parameters. Further investigation is carried out on the variations in decisions made for six simulated patients using the paper-based MEWS and eMEWS. Thus, the variations of decisions made for a given patient among the survey participants are analysed in light of paper-based MEWS and eMEWS. Therefore, this paper contributes to both theory and practice by identifying variations in health care providers’ perceptions when deciding the actions/treatment of patients.

Citation

Zarabzadeh, A., O’Donoghue, J., O’Connor, Y., O’Kane, T., Woodworth, S., Gallagher, J., & O’Connor, S. (2013). Variation in health care providers’ perceptions: decision making based on patient vital signs. Journal of Decision Systems, 22(3), 168-189. https://doi.org/10.1080/12460125.2013.817063

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 10, 2013
• Online Publication Date: Jul 24, 2013
• Publication Date: 2013-08
• Deposit Date: Oct 17, 2016
• Journal: Journal of Decision Systems
• Print ISSN: 1246-0125
• Electronic ISSN: 2116-7052
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 168-189
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/12460125.2013.817063
• Keywords: Modified Early Warning Scorecard (MEWS), electronic Modified Early Warning Scorecard (eMEWS), Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS), perception,
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/387377