Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Increasing antibiotic resistance is a global health threat, and appropriate antibiotic use is a priority. When someone is labeled as allergic to beta-lactam antibiotics (such as penicillin), it impacts antibiotic choice and negatively influences patient outcomes, including an increase in treatment failures, side effects, costs, and healthcare utilization. After careful assessment, most reactions to beta-lactams experienced by children are not true allergies. Growing evidence supports the safety and accuracy of a direct oral antibiotic challenge without prior skin testing for beta-lactam allergy (BLA) testing in most children who experienced benign rashes after beta-lactam use. A pediatric inpatient BLA de-labeling program (the De-LABeL program) will be implemented into routine care at McMaster Children's Hospital, so that patients can have their BLA assessed while in hospital. We will evaluate program implementation, the removal of inappropriate BLA labels from patient charts and the impact on family and healthcare provider's comfort with future beta-lactam use after hospital discharge. De-labeling in childhood prevents these labels from being carried through to adulthood and may have significant health implications.