Adherence to and efficacy of an evidence based management algorithm for acute asthma in the emergency department

Abstract

Asthma is a major health care problem. This study was to see if we could treat asthma more efficiently at Emergency Department through setting an evidence based clinical pathway. We compared treatments and outcomes of two patient groups before and after the introduction of clinical pathway. Treatments were based on prednisolone, magnesium sulfate, and combination of salbutamol and ipratropium bromide. We found while compliance with treatment was significantly improved, but admission rate and length of stay in hospital were not significantly decreased.