Diagnostic testing for penicillin allergy: A survey of practices and cost perceptions.

Having a penicillin allergy label associates with worse healthcare outcomes and increased treatment costs.[[1], [3]] However, whether penicillin allergy testing is cost-saving remains unclear, particularly as there is heterogeneity in the practice of such testing.[4] In the public sector, our cost assessment identified skin tests costs per patient of €95.0 (€73.5 for material costs + €21.5 for personnel costs) and DPT costs of €77.0 (€11.0 for material costs + €66.0 for personnel costs). The estimates reported in this study provide unique contextual information on the need for context-based cost assessments and on when penicillin allergy testing might be cost-saving. [Extracted from the article]