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

Figures & data

Table 1 Antibiotics Allergy Documentation Among Children at King Abdullah Specialized Children Hospital

	No.	%
Gender (n=105)
Male	65	61.9
Female	40	38.1
History of drug allergy (n=105)	33	31.4
Antibiotics allergy documentation (n=105)	98	93.3
● Signs of alert	40	40.8
● Allergy symptoms	85	86.7
● Allergy note	81	82.7
● Severity	66	67.3
Quality of documentation (n=98)
● Poor (≤2 points)	35	35.7
● Fair (3 points)	40	40.8
● Good (4 points)	23	23.5
Naranjo score (n=82)
● Doubtful/probable allergy	56	60.8
● Possible/definite allergy	36	39.2
Physicians’ decision to hold prescriptions(n=105)	63	60.0
Pharmacist decision to hold prescriptions (n=98)	56	57.1
Referral to immunology clinic (n=92)	22	23.9

Note: Figures in the table are for the available data only.

Table 2 Validity of Physicians’ Decision to Hold Antibiotics Prescriptions

Physician’s’ Decision in EMR	Pharmacist Decision in ARD Report		Total
	Yes	No
Yes	46	17	63
No	10	25	35
Total	56	42	98

Notes: Sensitivity = 46/56 = 0.82, FN= 0.18 [risk of allergy], Specificity = 25/42 = 0.60, FP= 0.40 [unnecessary restriction of prescriptions], Positive predictive value = 46/63 = 0.73, Negative predictive value = 25/35 = 0.71, kappa=0.45, p<0.001.

Table 3 Referral to Immunology Clinic and Severity of Allergy Based on Naranjo Scale

Severity of Allergy to Antibiotics	Referral to Immunology Clinic
	Yes	No
	No(%)	No(%)
Doubtful/probable	8 (14.3)	48 (85.7)
Possible/definite	14 (38.9)	22 (61.1)
Total	22 (23.9)	70 (76.1)