The key to penicillin allergy delabeling
An Introduction Video to Penicillin Delabeling
Do you Know?
• Penicillin is the most common drug allergy in hospitalized patients
• 10 - 20% of the US population have a documented Penicillin allergy
• More than 95% of Penicillin allergic patients are not Penicillin allergic
• Serious allergies such as anaphylaxis are rare - estimated to be< 0.04%
• The most common allergic reaction is a cutaneous eruption/rash
• Most Penicillin allergies are acquired in childhood
10% of the population reports a penicillin allergy but <1% of the whole population is truly allergic.
CDC 2017
When there is a penicillin allergy label in the electronic health record (EHR) there are increased risks for:
- Treatment failures and suboptimal treatments
- Adverse drug events - vancomycin nephrotoxicity
- Clostridioides difficile infections
- Development of antibiotic resistance
- Surgical site infections
Positive clinical effects from Penicillin allergy delabeling
Enable beta-lactam antibiotic treatment options
Lower adverse drug events (ADEs)
Reduce exposure to antibiotics causing Clostridioides difficile infections
Enable use of appropriate perioperative prophylactic antibiotic
There are significant financial benefits from delabeling patients
- Shortened length of stay (LOS)
- Decreased readmission rates
- Reduction in healthcare expenses
The PENallergy✓® program identifies penicillin allergic patients.
Provides decision-making toolkits for evaluation of adults and children that allow delabeling of penicillin allergy
Enables Risk Stratification into low or high risk by history alone without penicillin skin testing (PST)
Implements removal of a penicillin allergy from the EMR
Point-of-care
Details the patients penicillin allergy history
Provides education and training for pharmacists, nurses, physicians, and advanced practice providers to delabel patients
PENallergy✓® is available by subscription and contains the following components:
- Clinical decision-making toolkits to enable delabeling by history alone.
- FAQs - comprehensive and well referenced
- Educational video for all healthcare providers discussing Penicillin allergy and use of PENallergy✓® action plan for delabeling
- Comprehensive data tracking, analysis and reporting that can be used for quality improvement (QI) by the Antimicrobial Stewardship Team
- Bibliography - Extensive and up-to-date
Which patients benefit from delabeling?
- Adults and Children
- Hospitalized
- Outpatients
- Surgical - appropriate antibiotic prophylaxis
- Obstetrical - appropriate Group B streptococcus treatment
- Emergency Department
