Patient-reported penicillin allergies result in poor health outcomes for patients and drive inappropriate antibiotic prescribing, antimicrobial resistance and healthcare costs. Our group has internally and externally validated a novel penicillin allergy clinician decision rule (PEN-FAST) that is able to identify low risk penicillin allergies with a negative predictive value of 96% (95%; 94-98%). Therefore, whilst validated tools exist to enable inpatient penicillin assessment and de-labelling, limited evidence is available regarding the safety and efficacy in the outpatient clinic. The ability to deliver point-of-care penicillin allergy testing for a large cohort of patients, without skin testing, will improve patient access to testing and utilization of preferred penicillin antibiotics.
Whilst validated tools exist to enable inpatient penicillin assessment and de-labelling, limited evidence is available regarding the safety and efficacy in the outpatient clinic. The ability to deliver point-of-care penicillin allergy testing for a large cohort of patients, without skin testing, will improve patient access to testing and utilization of preferred penicillin antibiotics.