Does discharging asthma patients after one hour of treatment if clinically well affect emergency department length of stay

Abstract

AIM: Asthma is a major contributor to direct and indirect health-care costs and resource use. In May 2015, the Royal Children's Hospital (RCH) amended its clinical practice guideline for acute asthma management from discharging patients if the anticipated salbutamol requirement was every 3-4 h to discharging patients who were clinically well at 1 h after initial treatment. Our objective was to examine the impact of the new discharge recommendation on emergency department (ED) length of stay (LOS), rates of admission and representation. METHODS: We retrospectively audited the case notes of children presenting with mild or moderate asthma to the RCH ED over the equivalent 2-week periods in win..