Next step in antibiotic stewardship: Pharmacist-provided penicillin allergy testing.

WHAT IS KNOWN: Penicillin allergy limits therapeutic options for patients but often disappears over time, leaving patients erroneously labelled allergic and leading to the utilization of broad-spectrum and more expensive antibiotics. Penicillin allergy can be effectively assessed via skin testing.

OBJECTIVE: To improve patient access to penicillin allergy testing by implementing a pharmacist-provided service in a hospital setting.

COMMENT: Beta-lactams remain a mainstream therapy for many infections due to their effectiveness, low side effects and affordability. Typically, patient access to penicillin allergy testing is limited by the availability of allergy specialists, who traditionally perform such testing. A pharmacist-provided penicillin allergy testing service was implemented at our hospital in 2015 and became a powerful antibiotic stewardship tool. Removing penicillin allergy from patient profiles significantly expanded therapeutic options, expedited discharges and reduced costs of care.

WHAT IS NEW: Pharmacists can expand patient access to penicillin allergy testing.

CONCLUSION: Pharmacist-provided penicillin allergy testing permitted optimized antibiotic treatment and expedited discharges.