An assessment tool for acutely ill medical patients

This article reports the implementation and impact of a standardized systematic evidence-based predictive score for the initial assessment of acutely ill medical patients. The Simple Clinical Score (SCS) was introduced in the A&E department and the medical floor of the authors' hospital between June 2007 and July 2008. The SCS was well received by the staff - 67% felt it greatly improved patient assessment and was very valuable for ensuring appropriate placement of the patient after admission and improved the quality of care. This article describes the change process, the pilot evaluation and the training programme undertaken during the implementation of the SCS. It is hoped that this experience will be of value to other project teams who are undertaking similar initiatives.