Quality of acute asthma care in two tertiary hospitals in a state in South Western Nigeria: A report of clinical audit

Abstract

Background: To audit the quality of acute asthma care in two tertiary hospitals in a state in the southwestern region of Nigeria and to compare the clinical practice against the recommendations of the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) guideline.

Patients and methods: We carried out a retrospective analysis of 101 patients who presented with acute exacerbation of asthma to the hospital between November 2010 and October 2015.

Results: Majority of the cases were females (66.3%), <45 years of age (60.4%), and admitted in the wet season (64.4%). The median duration of hospital stay was 2 days (interquartile range; 1-3 days) and the mortality was 1.0%. At admission, 73 (72.3%) patients had their triggering factors documented and 33 (32.7%) had their severity assessed. Smoking status, medication adherence, serial oxygen saturation, and peak expiratory flow rate measurement were documented in less than half of the cases, respectively. Seventy-six (75.2%) patients had nebulized salbutamol, 89 (88.1%) had systemic corticosteroid, and 78 (77.2%) had within 1 h. On discharge, 68 (67.3%) patients were given follow-up appointment and 32 (31.7%) were reviewed within 30 days after discharge. Less than half were prescribed an inhaled corticosteroid (ICS), a self-management plan, or had their inhaler technique reviewed or controller medications adjusted. Overall, adherence to the GINA guideline was not satisfactory and was very poor among the medical officers.

Conclusion: The quality of acute asthma care in our setting is not satisfactory, and there is a low level of compliance with most recommendations of asthma guidelines. This audit has implicated the need to address the non-performing areas and organizational issues to improve the quality of care.

Keywords: Asthma; audit; emergencies; guidelines; management.