CURB-65 Score

When it activates

Scribeable activates a calculator from the encounter. The CURB-65 Score can activate when the transcript or pasted chart context documents any of these:

• Community-acquired pneumonia
• Pneumonia severity assessment
• Admission vs outpatient decision
• ICU consideration for pneumonia

Note-type scope: it activates on notes whose subject resolves to pulmonology, emergency medicine, hospital medicine, critical care. A note that resolves to another subject does not carry it even when the clinician's specialty matches; a note with no resolvable subject (a generic consultation) falls back to the specialty match.

Inputs the note needs

5 inputs. Each is resolved from the transcript, the pasted chart context and charted labs; an input marked "asks you" is requested as a clarification when it is undocumented.

Scoring

C=Confusion, U=Urea>19, R=RR>=30, B=BP low, 65=Age>=65. 1 point each.

Interpretation

0-1: Low mortality (1.5%), outpatient. 2: 9.2%, consider admission. >=3: 22%, inpatient; 4-5 consider ICU.

Evidence

Sources carried in Scribeable's citation registry for this calculator.

• Lim WS et al. Defining community acquired pneumonia severity on presentation to hospital: an international derivation and validation studyLim et al. (CURB-65) 2003 · 2003 · BTS · Level I · link last verified 2026-03-23
• ATS/IDSA Diagnosis and Treatment of Adults with Community-Acquired PneumoniaATS/IDSA CAP 2019 · 2019 · ATS/IDSA · Strong recommendation · link last verified 2026-03-23

How Scribeable handles it in the note

When an encounter activates the CURB-65 Score at the mandatory tier, Scribeable resolves its inputs from the transcript, the pasted chart context and any charted labs, and asks you for a missing input you can supply before the note is finalised. Bedside-exam and separately ordered study values are not requested one input at a time; a calculator that carries a combined clarification question may still put that single question to you.

The score is computed in code from the resolved inputs, not recalled by the language model. If the draft states a CURB-65 Score value that disagrees with the computed one, the disagreement is flagged to the second drafting pass, which is instructed to correct the score and its interpretation before you see the note.

Classified as a mandatory rule-out score: a missed result carries acute harm, so the activation filter never approves it on uncertainty.

Related calculators

• PSI/PORT ScoreStratifies pneumonia severity into risk classes to guide site-of-care decisions (outpatient vs inpatient vs ICU)
• Wells' Criteria for PERisk-stratifies patients suspected of pulmonary embolism
• qSOFA ScoreIdentifies non-ICU patients with infection at high mortality risk
• Light's CriteriaDifferentiates transudative from exudative pleural effusions to guide diagnostic workup
• Revised Geneva ScoreClinical prediction rule for estimating pre-test probability of pulmonary embolism
• Berlin Criteria for ARDSClassifies acute respiratory distress syndrome severity to guide ventilatory management and prognostication

Can activate in: Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Pulmonology, Hospital Medicine, Critical Care / ICU, Infectious Disease.