Tackling inpatient penicillin allergies: Assessing tools for antimicrobial stewardship.

BACKGROUND: Reported penicillin allergy rarely reflects penicillin intolerance. Failure to address inpatient penicillin allergies results in more broad-spectrum antibiotic use, treatment failures, and adverse drug events. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to determine the optimal approach to penicillin allergies among medical inpatients. METHODS: We evaluated internal medicine inpatients reporting penicillin allergy in 3 periods: (1) standard of care (SOC), (2) penicillin skin testing (ST), and (3) computerized guideline application with decision support (APP). The primary outcome was use of a penicillin or cephalosporin, comparing interventions to SOC using multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS: There were 625 patients: SOC, 148; ST, 278; and APP, 199. Of 278 ST patients, 179 (64%) were skin test eligible; 43 (24%) received testing and none were allergic. In the APP period, there were 292 unique Web site views; 112 users (38%) completed clinical decision support. Although ST period patients did not have increased odds of penicillin or cephalosporin use overall (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.3; 95% CI, 0.8-2.0), we observed significant increased odds of penicillin or cephalosporin use overall in the APP period (aOR, 1.8; 95% CI, 1.1-2.9) and in a per-protocol analysis of the skin tested subset (aOR, 5.7; 95% CI, 2.6-12.5). CONCLUSIONS: Both APP and ST-when completed-increased the use of penicillin and cephalosporin antibiotics among inpatients reporting penicillin allergy. While the skin tested subset showed an almost 6-fold impact, the computerized guideline significantly increased penicillin or cephalosporin use overall nearly 2-fold and was readily implemented.

Medication Use in the Diagnostic Pediatric Lumbar Puncture.

The lumbar puncture (LP) is a common procedure in the pediatric emergency department. A retrospective review was conducted of patients who had LPs from 2012 to 2016 at 2 children's hospitals to (1) characterize medication use during the pediatric LP and (2) test the hypothesis that varied medication use influences LP outcome. Outcomes were defined as unsuccessful if the LP was documented as unsuccessful, had a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) red blood cell (RBC) count >400 cells/µL, or if a second LP was performed within 24 hours. In total, 8463 patients were reviewed and 2806 (33%) were included in the study. We noted significant variation in LP medication use. When adjusted for patient demographics, location, weight, position, and provider experience, our regression model revealed that the use of fentanyl, ketamine, nitrous oxide, and propofol were best associated with LP success. These data suggest the need for a standardized LP medication protocol as provider choice in medication significantly influences LP outcome.