ABSTRACT
The decision to admit or discharge a patient is a cornerstone of emergency medicine, and one we make many times each day, often with little data upon which to base our opinion. Fortunately, in most cases we are right or the nature of the disease allows the patient to return if they are not improving. However, asthma, like ischemic heart disease, has all the ingredients for a bad outcome if an incorrect decision is made. Acute asthma has the potential to be a life-threatening disease and a propensity for rapid deterioration. How can we best differentiate those patients that will do well from those that will not? In addition, can we select those patients that will need admission early to best use our resources?
