AHRQ-Funded Intervention Significantly Improves Penicillin Allergy Delabeling

A health record-based, pharmacist-performed intervention in the hospital setting has more than doubled the odds of a patient having their penicillin allergy label removed and increased the odds of oral challenge testing to determine if a penicillin allergy exists. These results, published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice, come from a yearlong randomized trial of the “Pragmatic Removal of Penicillin Allergy Electronic Health Record Labels,” or “PROPEL,” intervention. The PROPEL intervention consisted of two components: a one-time educational opportunity for staff and an electronic health record decision-support resource deployed at randomized 1-month intervals to each of the 12 participating inpatient units, in a stepped wedge trial design. Among the 2,052 patients admitted to a participating unit with an existing penicillin allergy label, those who received care on a unit after the intervention went live were significantly more likely to have their penicillin allergies tested and removed during their hospitalization. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40675326/ The Pragmatic Removal of Penicillin Allergy Electronic Health Record Labels (PROPEL) Trial: A Randomized Clinical Trial Cosby A Stone Jr 1, Heather L Prigmore 2, Allison B McCoy 3, Joanna L Stollings 4, Mary Lynn Dear 5, William Hiser 5, Grace Van Winkle 5, Sunil Kripalani 6, Adam Wright 3, Frank E Harrell 2, Todd W Rice 7, Christopher J Lindsell 8, Elizabeth J Phillips 9; Vanderbilt Learning Healthcare System Platform Investigators 5