Korean J Crit Care Med.  2015 Feb;30(1):8-12. 10.4266/kjccm.2015.30.1.8.

The Inter-Rater Reliability of Simplified Acute Physiology Score 3 (SAPS3) among Intensive Care Unit Nurses

• Kim JH
• Kim JY
• Kim W
• Kim KW
• Lee SI
• Kim KT
• Park JS
• Choe WJ
• Kim JW

• KMID: 2227693
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4266/kjccm.2015.30.1.8

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Simplified acute physiology score 3 (SAPS3) was developed in 2005 to evaluate intensive care unit (ICU) performance and to predict patient mortality or disease severity. The score is usually calculated by doctors, but it requires substantial human resources. And many nurse-lead studies use this scoring system. In the present study, we examined the inter-rater reliability of SAPS3 among nurses in an ICU.
METHODS
Five ICU nurses who worked in an ICU for a mean length of 7.8 years were educated for 2 hours about SAPS3 score and its components. Each nurse scored 26 patients, and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of the total scores and each subset were evaluated.
RESULTS
The ICC (95% confidence interval) of SAPS3 score was 0.89 (0.82-0.95), that of subset I was 0.90 (0.82-0.95), subset II was 0.54 (0.35-0.73), and subset III was 0.95 (0.91-0.97). The ICC of predicted mortality was 0.91 (0.85-0.96).
CONCLUSIONS
The ICC of SAPS3 score and predicted mortality among ICU nurses were reliable. According to these ICC values, SAPS3 score is a reliable scale to be used by nurses. The ICC of subset II was lower than those of the other subsets, suggesting that education of SAPS3 should focus on the definition of each subset II component.

Keyword

critical care; intensive care units; observer variation; severity of illness index

MeSH Terms

Critical Care
Education
Humans
Intensive Care Units*
Mortality
Observer Variation
Physiology*
Severity of Illness Index

Reference

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