The incidence of incorrectly reported drug allergies in a pediatrics hospital and the effectiveness of pharmacist interventions to clarify these reports were studied. A four-month prospective study included children (< or = 18 years of age) with at least one drug allergy reported in their medical chart. Drug allergies were assessed by a pharmacist who labeled the reactions as true, incorrectly reported, or undetermined allergies, in accordance with defined criteria. When an incorrectly reported allergy was removed from a patient's chart with the consent of the attending physician, the intervention was reported to the community pharmacist. A total of 186 of 248 drug allergies identified in 1591 patient charts were challenged. Of these, 26 (14%), 103 (55%), and 57 (31%) were considered true, undetermined, and incorrectly reported drug allergies, respectively, by the pharmacist. A total of 53 (93%) incorrectly reported allergies were removed from patients' charts with the consent of the attending physicians. Community pharmacists were contacted in 25 of these cases. At follow-up, the incorrect allergy documentation was found to have been removed from 23 community pharmacy charts. A pharmacist found numerous incorrectly reported allergies in a pediatrics hospital and assisted in removing them from patients' medical charts.

 

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				S C Porter, S F Manzi, D Volpe, and A M Stack Getting the data right: information accuracy in pediatric emergency medicine. Qual. Saf. Health Care, August 1, 2006; 15(4): 296 - 301. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]