pedocs_score: PEDOCS Score for Pediatric Emergency Department Overcrowding

In cliot: Clinical Indices and Outcomes Tools

PEDOCS Score for Pediatric Emergency Department Overcrowding

Description

Calculates the Pediatric Emergency Department Overcrowding Scale (PEDOCS) score. This tool estimates the severity of overcrowding in a pediatric emergency department at a specific point in time based on the total number of registered patients and the number of patients in the waiting room.

Usage

pedocs_score(total_patients_registered, number_in_waiting_room)

Arguments

total_patients_registered	Numeric. The total number of patients currently registered in the ED (including those in beds and in the waiting room).
number_in_waiting_room	Numeric. The number of patients currently in the waiting room.

Details

The formula is: PEDOCS = 33.3 \times [0.11 + (0.07 \times Waiting Room) + (0.04 \times Total Registered)]. Interpretation:

• 0-20: Not Busy

• 21-60: Busy

• 61-100: Extremely Busy

• 101-140: Overcrowded

• 141-180: Severely Overcrowded

• 181-200: Dangerously Overcrowded

Value

A list containing:

PEDOCS_Score	The calculated score (Range 0-200).
Overcrowding_Status	Classification of overcrowding severity.

References

Weiss SJ, Ernst AA, Nick TG. Development of a novel measure of overcrowding in a pediatric emergency department. Pediatr Emerg Care. 2007;23(9):641-645. doi:10.1097/PEC.0b013e31814a687d

Examples

# Example 1: Not Busy
# 10 registered, 2 waiting
# Score = 33.3 * (0.11 + 0.14 + 0.4) = 33.3 * 0.65 = ~22 (Busy)
pedocs_score(10, 2)

# Example 2: Overcrowded
# 50 registered, 20 waiting
# Score = 33.3 * (0.11 + 1.4 + 2.0) = 33.3 * 3.51 = ~117 (Overcrowded)
pedocs_score(50, 20)

cliot documentation built on Dec. 1, 2025, 1:06 a.m.