265 Drug allergy documentation in the All Wales Adult CF Centre (AWACFC)

• Published in: Journal of cystic fibrosis Vol. 14; p. S126
• Main Authors: Basrai, S, Young, M, Lea-Davies, M, Speight, L, Lau, D, Ketchell, R.I, Duckers, J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.06.2015
• Subjects: Pulmonary/Respiratory
• ISSN: 1569-1993; 1873-5010
• DOI: 10.1016/S1569-1993(15)30439-2

Aims i. To examine the validity of drug allergy documentation in the AWACFC. ii. To explore how effective communication is between AWACFC and patients’ GPs regarding their drug allergies and whether patient knowledge of their own allergies matches AWACFC and GP records. Method Allergy records from the patients’ latest annual reviews were reviewed retrospectively. Allergy records were requested from the patients’ GP and a questionnaire regarding drug allergies was given out to patients. The data was also used to identify if allergies were documented correctly. Allergy was defined as a usually harmless substance resulting in immunological activation (Robinson et al. 2002). Results Of the 240 patients attending the AWACFC 106 (44%) patients had a complete dataset of allergy records from the GP, AWACFC annual review and patient questionnaire. Only 40 of the 106 patients (38%) had allergy documentation from AWACFC, GP and patient questionnaire that matched. A total of 164 drug allergies were documented with 67 patients (63%) having at least one drug allergy documented. 34 of these 67 patients (51%) had at least one drug allergy documented where the description did not meet the definition of a true allergy. Conclusion Communication regarding drug allergies between the patient, GP and AWACFC was poor. It was difficult to characterise true allergies as many of the documented allergies lacked descriptions. Over half the patients had at least one drug allergy documented that was not an allergy. Misdiagnosing an adverse event as an allergy can result in patients needlessly missing out on optimal treatment.