Objective:
To evaluate the rate of allergy documentation during inpatient
admissions and determine if discrepancies exist between ethnicities
and English proficiency, genders, and by medication classes.
Methods: Patients at an outpatient clinic with severe medication
allergies documented in their electronic medical record were identified.
Inpatient hospital admissions following the date this allergy
was documented were reviewed and the presence or absence of this
documentation in the inpatient electronic medical record was noted.
An overall rate of successful documentation of allergies was calculated
by dividing the number of admissions where the allergy was entered
into by the total number of admissions where the opportunity to
enter the allergy existed. Each patients ethnicity, gender, and
the class of medication to which they were allergic to, was also
recorded to determine if difference exist within each demographic.
Results: Overall, allergy information was successfully entered
in 84.6% of 246 hospital admissions. This rate was significantly
lower (37.5%) among patients whose ethnicity groups, on average,
have lower rates of English fluency. There was no significant
difference between genders. Allergies to cephalosporins were less
likely to be entered (44.4%).
Conclusion: Patients who are not proficient in speaking English
may be at an increased risk of experiencing an adverse drug reaction
as their severe allergies are less likely to be documented during
a hospital admission.
