This presentation was given at the Health Quality & Safety Commission's event, patient deterioration New Zealand: current state and future developments, held on 29–30 November 2018.

I would like to introduce you to a 50-year-old gentleman who in 2004 was admitted with acute breathlessness, cough and a fever; 2 days later this man was pronounced dead at 06.16am. The untimely death of this gentleman, now known as Patient A, was the catalyst for CCDHB to develop an outreach service and an early warning score.

The service was one of the first of its kind in NZ. It was nurse-led, part-time and not well-received. No-one liked to be told that they didn’t know how to look after sick patients. Thankfully, these nurses, these pioneers, persisted. Nursing staff and medical staff began to see the value in this service.

Today we have outreach services across NZ and we all use the same EWS. I think Patient A and his family can feel assured that his death was not in vain.

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