Inpatient management of status asthmaticus

We examined physician management of patients hospitalized for status asthmaticus at a university hospital. A retrospective review of consecutive admissions for status asthmaticus covering a 13-month period yielded 130 charts for review. We found that practice patterns with respect to documentation of severity of illness, medications, and documentation of efficacy of therapy fell short of the current state of knowledge with respect to treatment of asthma. Asthma is a treatable disease, and physician education needs to bridge the gap between current practice patterns and standards of optimal therapy as defined in the literature.