Documented penicillin allergy and beta-lactam antibiotic use in Massachusetts long-term care facilities: opportunities for penicillin allergy delabeling

Kap Sum Foong; Shira Doron; Leslie Fowle; Melissa Cumming; Jessica Leaf; Barbara Bolstorff; Christina Brandeburg; Ye Chen; Alysse Wurcel

doi:10.1017/ash.2024.434

Documented penicillin allergy and beta-lactam antibiotic use in Massachusetts long-term care facilities: opportunities for penicillin allergy delabeling

Antimicrob Steward Healthc Epidemiol. 2024 Oct 8;4(1):e166. doi: 10.1017/ash.2024.434. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Kap Sum Foong¹, Shira Doron¹, Leslie Fowle², Melissa Cumming², Jessica Leaf², Barbara Bolstorff², Christina Brandeburg², Ye Chen³, Alysse Wurcel¹

Affiliations

¹ Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA.
² Division of Epidemiology, Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
³ Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Tufts School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, Boston, MA, USA.

Abstract

In a cross-sectional study of 20 Massachusetts long-term care (LTC) facilities, 19% (n = 449) of residents received antibiotics, with approximately one-third having a documented penicillin allergy. This documented allergy decreased the likelihood of prescribing beta-lactam antibiotics for infections. Improved penicillin allergy assessments and delabeling could optimize antibiotic prescribing in LTC settings.