Use of the Children's Observation and Severity Tool (COAST), an Adaptation of the Paediatric Early Warning Score, in the Emergency Department as a Predictor for Hospital Admission: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Background: Paediatric Early Warning Scores (PEWS) are designed to detect the clinically unwell or deteriorating child within a hospital setting. There is a drive within the NHS to standardise this scoring system across various settings. According to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, there is currently a national review on triage tools used within emergency departments; however, evidence to date is scarce. Within the Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust, we utilise both the Manchester Triage System (MTS) and the Children's Observation and Severity tool (COAST), an adaption of PEWS, in our Paediatric Emergency Department (PED). Methods: This retrospective cohort study is the largest of its kind and was performed to validate COAST, compare it to MTS and determine if it is a good predictor of hospital admission. Demographic data, initial MTS scores, initial COAST scores and admission outcomes of 41,030 paediatric emergency department attendances were analysed, encompassing 27,196 unique patients. Results: Results demonstrated that high COAST scores on arrival are strongly correlated with hospital admission, with positive predictive values of 59.52% with COAST of >= 3 and 100% for with score threshold of >= 5. In comparison with the MTS, COAST is better at predicting admission. Conclusions: We conclude that COAST performs well in correlating to and thus predicting paediatric hospital admission outcome from the PED.