For the patient, this includes the opportunity to receive optimal antimicrobial therapy, as well as potential savings in copays and other out-of-pocket expenses for outpatient medications, she said.
As antimicrobial resistance becomes an ever more pressing problem, there are more opportunities for targeted therapy if inappropriate allergy labeling is addressed, Ms. Fulton added.
Further study should use “cost-effectiveness analysis methods that include societal and health sector perspectives capturing immediate and future outcomes and costs to evaluate the use of skin-testing procedures in either inpatient or outpatient settings,” the investigators wrote.
The study was supported by ALK, the manufacturer of Pre-Pen, a commercially available penicillin allergy skin test.
SOURCE: Mattingly TJ et al. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2018 Jan 31. doi: 10.1016/j.jaip.2017.12.033.