Drug Allergies and Reactions Program: A New Paradigm to Record Complete Information

Background. Drug allergies are an important part of the patient record. Unlike active problems, medications, and laboratory values, allergies are seldom removed from the record and are not subject to rapid change.' The common method of listing drug allergies in the patient record lacks important information about the allergy or reaction: What reaction occurred? How certain is it that the reaction occurred? If a compound drug is recorded, to which component is the patient allergic? The literature shows that allergies and intolerances are not documented in 20 percent of medical records,2'3 and that specific types of reaction, which may be relevant to treatment decisions, are not documented in two thirds of patients with a documented allergy.' If one goal is to use recorded drug allergies and intolerances to generate automatic alerts regarding potentially dangerous drug orders, the clinician or pharmacist must be able to provide accurate and detailed information.