Penicillin Allergy Delabeling Program: an exploratory economic evaluation in the Australian context

Background Internationally, clinical and economic advantages of low-risk penicillin delabeling have been explored, supporting changes to healthcare delivery systems where penicillin delabeling is embedded into inpatient usual care. Aim To determine if economic advantages of low-risk inpatient penicillin delabeling, described in the international literature, are realised in the Australian context. Methods This explorative economic evaluation had prospective patient data collection between January and August 2019, across two Australian health services. Part-1: Determine the cost per effectively delabeled patient for Penicillin Allergy Delabeling Program inpatients (PADP cohort) compared to Outpatient Antibiotic Allergy Testing Service outpatients (OAATS cohort). Part-2: A cost analysis to compare hospital costs for inpatients with low-risk penicillin allergy who did (PADP cohort) and did not (usual care cohort) undergo PADP delabeling. Results Part-1: The PADP (n=350) and OAATS (n=27 patients, n=36 individual visits) cohorts were comparable. In PADP, costs/proportion delabeled was $20.10/0.98, equating to $20.51 per effectively delabeled patient; in OAATS, it was $181.24/0.50, equating to $362. Compared to OAATS, PADP was associated with savings of $341.97 per effectively delabeled patient; indicating the outpatient testing was the dominated strategy, being more costly and less effective. Part-2: The PADP (n=218) and usual care (n=32) cohorts were comparable. Significantly favouring the delabeled PADP cohort, mean difference per patient was -4.41 days (95%CI -7.64, -1.18) and -$9,467.72 (95%CI -$15,419.98, -$3,515.46). Conclusions Consistent with international literature, delabeling low-risk penicillin allergies in the inpatient setting had economic advantages in the Australian context. Fully powered economic evaluations are urgently required to consolidate these findings. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.