Introducing the MART Tool for unplanned care settings
The MART Tool is a practical clinical decision support tool designed to help healthcare professionals working in unplanned care settings deliver evidence-based asthma care at the point of discharge. It is intended for patients aged 12 years and over who have presented with an asthma exacerbation and are clinically safe to be discharged home.
Why was this tool developed?
Every contact in unplanned care is an opportunity to change the course of a patient’s asthma.
Yet too often, patients presenting with uncontrolled asthma are discharged with prednisolone and a short-acting beta-2 agonist (SABA) inhaler alone, while opportunities to optimise treatment, initiate Maintenance and Reliver Therapy (MART) therapy, check inhaler technique, provide a personalised asthma action plan and arrange primary care follow up are missed.
It is essential that any clinician providing asthma care is aware of recent changes to national guidance and feels supported and able to implement them. The changes are outlined in this document from PCRS.
The MART tool has been designed to support you in delivering quick, practical, evidence-based care in unplanned care settings that can:
- improve outcomes
- reduce repeat attendances
- help patients leave safer and better equipped to manage their asthma.
It helps you identify patients who may benefit from switching to or optimising a MART regimen and supports you to prescribe the right anti-inflammatory inhaler at discharge, reducing reliance on SABA only treatment and supporting better long term asthma control.
Who is this tool for?
This tool should be used for patients aged 12 years and over who have presented with an asthma exacerbation and are clinically safe to be discharged home. It supports discharge decision-making and ongoing asthma management; it does not assess the severity of an acute asthma attack or guide emergency treatment.
For information on how to assess and manage an asthma attack, see this guide.
Use the MART decision making aid for unplanned care
This tool is currently in development. We're continuing to refine and improve it, and your feedback will help shape future iterations. Please let us know what you think by using the feedback buttons below.
