Recording a Penicillin Allergy in Vision

Cegedim Healthcare Solutions' Online Help relating to adding a drug allergy using Vision is available here

When adding an allergy to a drug product included in the Penicillin group of antibiotics, the specific name of the drug to which the patient is allergic should be selected from the drug list. For example, Amoxicillan, Ampicillan, Benzylpenicillin, Dicloxacillin, Phenoxymethylpenicillin.

There is no drug in the dictionary / database used by Vision called “Penicillin” and hasn’t been for many years. Quite some time ago these antibiotics were renamed (Penicillin V -> Phenoxymethylpenicillin, Penicillin G -> Benzylpenicillin etc), so if a user types “Penicill” in the drug search used by Vision the only drug that is returned is Penicillamine (indicated for rheumatoid arthritis, Wilson’s disease). The following NPSA High Risk Process similar name drug warning is displayed when a user selects to add a drug allergy to Penicillamine or at the point of prescribing.

We would be grateful if Vision users could please follow the above advice and guidance when recording a Penicillin allergy. This will help to mitigate against the clinical risk associated with patients being incorrectly coded as having a drug allergy to Penicillamine, rather than Penicillin. Cegedim Healthcare Solutions previously published a blog post to highlight this risk: https://www.inps.co.uk/hive-news/action-required-penicillamine-vs.-penicillin-drug-allergy-recording