Faculty Articles
Identifying opportunities in EHR to improve the quality of antibiotic allergy data.
Publication Title
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association
Publisher
Oxford University Press
ISSN
1067-5027
Publication Date
4-1-2016
Keywords
Adult, Anti-Bacterial Agents, Documentation, Drug Hypersensitivity, Electronic Health Records, Female, Florida, Humans, Male, Sex Factors, beta-Lactams
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial resistance is a growing, global public health crisis, due in large part to the overuse and misuse of antibiotics. Understanding medication allergy data and allergy reactions that are documented in electronic health records (EHRs) can help to identify opportunities to improve the quality of documentation of beta-lactam allergies, thus potentially reducing the prescribing of alternative antibiotics.
METHODS: Medication allergies and allergy reactions recorded in the EHR for 319 051 patients seen across 32 community health centers were reviewed. Patients with a beta-lactam allergy recorded in their EHR were identified. Free text, as well as standardized allergy and allergy reaction fields, were analyzed.
RESULTS: Among patients, 9.1% (n = 29 095) had evidence of a beta-lactam allergy recorded in their EHR. Women, white, and non-Hispanic patients were more likely to have a documented allergy compared to men, black, and Hispanic patients. Among all patients with a documented beta-lactam allergy, 36.2% had an empty or missing allergy reaction description in their EHR.
CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that current EHR documentation practices among the health centers reviewed do not provide enough information on allergic reactions to allow providers to discern between true allergies and common, but anticipated, drug side effects. Improved EHR documentation guidance, training that reinforces the use of standardized data and more detailed recording of allergic reactions, combined with initiatives to address patient barriers including health literacy, may help to improve the accuracy of drug allergies in patients' records. These initiatives, combined with antimicrobial stewardship programs, can help to reduce inappropriate prescribing of alternative antibiotics when beta-lactam antibiotics are first-line and can be tolerated.
DOI
10.1093/jamia/ocv139
Volume
23
Issue
e1
First Page
108
Last Page
112
Disciplines
Medical Specialties | Medicine and Health Sciences | Osteopathic Medicine and Osteopathy
NSUWorks Citation
Moskow, Jaclynn M; Cook, Nicole; Champion-Lippmann, Carisa; Amofah, Saint Anthony; and Garcia, Angela S, "Identifying opportunities in EHR to improve the quality of antibiotic allergy data." (2016). Faculty Articles. 1497.
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/hpd_com_faculty_articles/1497
