• Chen Li, Kaili Wang, Liang Wu, Bing Song, Junyuan Tan, and Haibin Su.
• Department of Hepatology, The Fifth Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
• Ann. Med. 2023 Jan 1; 55 (2): 22398292239829.

BackgroundWhether the National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS2) can effectively discriminate the severe/critical state of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) at the prehospital stage remains unknown. We aimed to assess the performance of NEWS2 in rapidly discriminating severe/critical COVID-19 and its relationship with prehospital medical services.MethodsSix illness severity scores of 414 patients were calculated at the prehospital stage. Receiver operating characteristic curves were generated to explore the ability of these scores to discriminate severe/critical patients from mild/moderate patients. A logistic regression analysis was conducted to evaluate independent predictors associated with severe/critical state.ResultsThe age, numbers of comorbidities, prehospital care workload, consumption of medical human resources, and illness severity scores of severe/critical patients were higher than those of mild/moderate patients (p < 0.05). When NEWS2 scores >2, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were 93.5%, 90.7%, 74.1%, and 98.0%, respectively. The C-statistic of NEWS2 (0.963) was higher than that of quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (0.680, p < 0.001), CRB-65 (0.879, p < 0.001), Rapid Acute Physiology Score (0.692, p < 0.001), and Rapid Emergency Medicine Score (0.879, p < 0.001). NEWS2 was positively correlated with the numbers of prehospital treatment measures (r = 0.732, p < 0.001), numbers of medical staff (r = 0.615, p < 0.001), and total transport time (r = 0.595, p < 0.001). Age ≥65 years (OR = 5.43, p = 0.016), hypertension (OR = 5.39, p < 0.001), active malignancy (OR = 5.94, p = 0.005), and NEWS2 scores >2 (OR = 124.88, p < 0.001) were independent predictors to discriminate severe/critical patients. Oxygen saturation (SpO2) (OR =1.87, p < 0.001) was the unique independent predictor to discriminate false positive patients from true positive patients.ConclusionsPrehospital NEWS2 can accurately and rapidly discriminate severe/critical COVID-19 during the Omicron variant wave. High levels of NEWS2 indicate an increase in prehospital care workload and consumption of medical human resources.

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