Patients are deemed eligible for this study if they are between the ages of 2 and 18 years, have a diagnosis of asthma, have a valid phone number, are being admitted with an asthma exacerbation, and are not followed by a pediatric allergist or pulmonologist. Eligible patients whose family agrees to enroll in the study are randomized to the study group or the control group. Patients in the study group receive care from nurses in the PCRU who work with the housestaff to manage the patients according to the critical pathway. Patients in the control group are admitted to a floor other than the PCRU, and receive our usual care from the residents and nursing staff. At the end of the study, we conduct a series of phone interviews to determine the course of the episode of illness. These interviews occur during the first week after discharge and 2 weeks after discharge. At the conclusion of the study, the results will be analyzed to determine the mean length of stay for both groups, and to determine the number of unplanned health-care interventions in both groups for the 2 weeks following discharge. Other variables will be analyzed to ensure that our two study groups have similar demographic and disease severity characteristics.
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