Raising the Bar for Asthma Care in the Emergency Department

[...]tracking the real-world effectiveness of interventions is one of the central goals of comparative effectiveness research in asthma.5 In this context, 2 studies have examined the quality of care for adults with asthma exacerbations and found that, overall, patients received approximately 50%-70% of recommended care processes in the outpatient6 or ED setting.7 The adherence to guidelines seems to be better (>80%) among children with asthma exacerbations in acute care settings.8,9 In this issue of the JACI: [...]the lack of PEF in most patients would have made it difficult to correctly identify patients with a moderate or severe exacerbation who should receive anticholinergics or systemic corticosteroids in the ED. Because of missing data, the true proportion of eligible patients who receive these medications may be higher or lower.