Patients' Understanding of Drug Allergy and Documentation—Is There a Link?

Abstract

Background: Re-exposure to a drug to which one is allergic is a preventable adverse drug event. There is a reliance on the patient to provide accurate information on their allergies for the purpose of complete documentation. Aim: To investigate the relationship between patients' understanding of their drug allergy and documentation of their allergy status in their hospital records. Method: A structured interview of inpatients identified whether they had a drug allergy. Patients were then assessed on their ability to distinguish the symptoms of an allergic reaction from those of an adverse effect and stratified into groups based on their level of understanding. Review of drug charts and medical records identified both the presence and quality of documentation. Results: Of the 250 patients interviewed, 95 (38%) had previously experienced a true allergic reaction to a drug. A good understanding of the symptoms associated with an allergic reaction was demonstrated by 48 (51%). 50 (53%) patients had their allergy documented on their medication chart and 69 (73%) in their medical records. 18 (19%) patients had no documentation of their allergy status. There was a trend that good understanding of allergy may lead to improved completeness of documentation but this did not reach statistical significance. Conclusion: Patients' understanding of drug allergy improved the quality of documentation. System changes need to ensure proper training of staff to take and record drug allergies. J Pharm Pract Res 2005; 35: 276-8.

Accuracy of Antibiotic Allergy Documentation and the Validity of Physicians’ Decision in a Pediatric Tertiary Care Setting

“…Our review of the medical records demonstrated that the majority have poor allergy documentation, with good documentation for only 23.5% of patients. These findings were similar to the findings of a pilot study 12 that reported missing information in EMR. In addition, several patients with several drug allergies had only one of their allergies documented.…”

“…Of the 20 papers categorized as incomplete, 18 had no information recorded about their allergy status, neither in drug charts nor in medical records. 12 To the best of our knowledge, there are no studies to assess the quality of documentation of drug allergies in pediatric patients in a Saudi medical care setting. Thus, our aim in this study is to evaluate the practice of antibiotic allergies documentation in the electronic medical records (EMR) and determine the validity of physicians’ decisions to hold antibiotics prescriptions.…”

Drug allergy documentation-time for a change?

“…Although true allergies are uncommon, there have been reports of patients suffering adverse effects following administration of medicines they have been previously identified as causing an allergic reaction [3]. These unnecessary reactions can be avoided by creating a complete documentation of allergies as soon as the patient is admitted to hospital [4]. It is therefore vital that the acknowledged allergy status of the patient is accessible at the time of prescribing and administration of drugs.…”

Effectiveness of drug allergy card to prevent repeated prescribing of allergenic medications in a Malaysian public hospital

“…[1][2][3] Despite being preventable, the repeated prescribing of known allergenic medications is still common, accounting for 8% to 15% of the medication errors worldwide. 2,[4][5][6][7] In response to the global concern about drug safety, the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology has recommended the use of drug allergy cards. 8 This method has long been implemented in public hospitals in Malaysia as a strategy to facilitate the communication of patients' drug allergy history, especially during emergency situations in which complete medical records and medication history are usually not available.…”