The Newborn Early Warning (NEW) system: development of an at-risk infant intervention system

The use of early warning systems is widespread but their use in the neonatal age group has been under-investigated. This article describes the development of a Newborn Early Warning ‘traffic-light’ coded observation chart to enable early identification of adverse changes in physiological parameters. Much work remains to be done but the aim of this initial project is to allow other maternity units to consider how they can improve the safety of at-risk newborn infants on their postnatal wards.