Penicillin Drug Class Substitutes Save Patients and Hospitals Money

According to data presented at ASHP’s 54th Midyear Clinical Meeting and Exhibition, improved allergy documentation offers increased choices to patients and has the ability to save hospitals money.

The researchers discovered that over 50% of patients who report allergies to penicillin were able to take antibiotics from the same drug class instead of resorting to other options, avoiding potential higher costs and side effects. While about 10% of the population claims to have penicillin allergies, experts believe that the real number may be closer to only 1%. 

During the 3-month study, one hospital saved just over $20,000 by switching 43 patients to a penicillin substitute from the same class. 

“The prevalence of this perceived allergy makes our study particularly useful to hospitals and health care systems as they look at better patient care and cost reductions. Working together, pharmacists and other medical professionals can find alternatives that work for some patients,” said Rita Chamoun, PharmD, clinical staff pharmacist at Baptist Hospital of Miami, FL, and lead author of the study. “A multidisciplinary approach is key to optimizing therapy in patients with a reported penicillin allergy,” 

In the study, pharmacists recommended switching patients who had previously successfully used other beta-lactams, to “a beta-lactam antibiotic with 100% prescriber acceptance. Aztreonam and levofloxacin were the most commonly prescribed non-beta-lactam antibiotics prior to the allergy assessment.”

The researchers note that a large part of their study demonstrated the benefits of improving allergy documentation to better inform progress and future prescribing.

“While our study focused on the use of a pharmacy-driven allergy assessment to reduce non-beta-lactam antibiotic use, we also aimed to improve allergy documentation,” Dr Chamoun said. “We found that improving allergy documentation goes hand-in-hand with optimizing selection of antibiotic therapy.” —Edan Stanley