Documentation of penicillin adverse drug reactions in electronic health records: inconsistent use of allergy and intolerance labels.

The frequency of penicillin allergy label in this data set is consistent with the known overdiagnosis of penicillin allergy in the hospital population. ADR documentation was poor with incomplete entries and inconsistent categorisation. The concepts of allergy and intolerance for ADR classification, whilst mechanistically valid, may not be useful at the point of ADR entry by generalist clinicians. Systematic evaluation of reported ADR is needed to improve the quality of information for future prescribers.