The surprise question: predictive accuracy in an unselected emergency department population - a prospective study in nurses and physicians.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The 'surprise question' (SQ) asks care professionals to assess the patient's mortality risk. In this prospective study, we investigated 1) the prognostic accuracy of the SQ regarding 3- and 12-month mortality (SQ³/SQ¹²) answered by nurses and physicians in unselected adult emergency department (ED) patients, and in high risk subgroups (age ≥ 50 y; medical patients), 2) the agreement between these care professionals.

Patients and methods

In this prospective study, the SQ³ and SQ¹² were scored by nurses and physicians. AU-ROC, sensitivity, specificity, and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated.Kappa values and absolute agreement were calculated.

Results

In total, 1958 patients were assessed. Mortality with

SUBMITTER: Theunissen M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12269047 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature