Causes, Diagnostic Testing, and Treatments Related to Clinical Deterioration Events Among High-Risk Ward Patients

Timely intervention for clinically deteriorating ward patients requires that care teams accurately diagnose and treat their underlying medical conditions. However, the most common diagnoses leading to deterioration and the relevant therapies provided are poorly characterized.

We aimed to determine the diagnoses responsible for clinical deterioration, the relevant diagnostic tests ordered, and the treatments administered among high-risk ward patients using manual chart review.

This was a multicenter retrospective observational study in inpatient medical-surgical wards at four health systems from 2006 to 2020. Randomly selected patients (1000 from each health system) with clinical deterioration, defined by reaching the 95th percentile of a validated early warning score, electronic Cardiac Arrest Risk Triage, were included.

Clinical deterioration was confirmed by a trained reviewer or marked as a false alarm if no deterioration occurred for each patient. For true deterioration events, the condition causing deterioration, relevant diagnostic tests ordered, and treatments provided were collected.

Of the 4000 included patients, 2484 (62%) had clinical deterioration confirmed by chart review. Sepsis was the most common cause of deterioration (41%; n = 1021), followed by arrhythmia (19%; n = 473), while liver failure had the highest in-hospital mortality (41%). The most common diagnostic tests ordered were complete blood counts (47% of events), followed by chest radiographs (42%) and cultures (40%), while the most common medication orders were antimicrobials (46%), followed by fluid boluses (34%) and antiarrhythmics (19%).

We found that sepsis was the most common cause of deterioration, while liver failure had the highest mortality. Complete blood counts and chest radiographs were the most common diagnostic tests ordered, and antimicrobials and fluid boluses were the most common medication interventions. These results provide important insights for clinical decision-making at the bedside, training of rapid response teams, and the development of institutional treatment pathways for clinical deterioration.