Pharmacist assessment of drug allergies

The impact of pharmacist-conducted drug allergy assessment on patient allergy labeling and subsequent drug therapy is reported. Pharmacists at an acute-care teaching hospital interviewed selected patients to verify their drug allergy status. If an interview resulted in the removal of an allergy label from the patient's allergy profile, the patient's medication profile was monitored daily to detect any subsequent use of the drug. If the targeted drug was prescribed, the patient's clinical status was assessed to determine the effect of the prescribed drug. A total of 606 drug allergy assessments were conducted in 358 patients. The allergy label was removed after 169 (28%) of the assessments; at least one label was removed for 121 (34%) of the patients. Fourteen patients (4%) received a targeted drug or drugs. Four of these patients had signs of clinical improvement. No adverse allergic reactions were observed in patients who received targeted agents. By interviewing patients, pharmacists identified and removed inappropriate drug allergy labels, enabling patients to receive medication that otherwise would have been withheld.