Audit of medication allergy referrals to an allergy outpatient service at a tertiary hospital

Abstract

AbstractMedication allergy is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality and proper evaluation and management by an allergy service is of paramount importance. We audited all adult medication allergy outpatient referrals received by a tertiary allergy/clinical immunology service for completeness. A 6‐month prospective audit of all medication allergy referrals was undertaken at a tertiary public hospital in South Australia. Each referral was assessed against the Australasian Society for Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA) medication allergy referral template. A total of 73 medication allergy referrals were received. There was an overall poor level of adherence to all criteria (44.7%) and general practitioner (GP) referrals were generally more detailed than internal referrals. Inadequately detailed referrals may have the knock‐on effect of inappropriate triaging of referrals. Future studies are required to identify barriers to doctors providing sufficiently detailed referrals, and investigate appropriate interventions to improve this.